This thread is for posting information you find out about countries in West Africa. They are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast (or Cote d’Ivoire as they prefer to be called), Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Any help, especially from French speakers, would be much appreciated!
Karina
This is an old article, but I just testing to see if I’m doing things right.
25 Jun 2006 West African Ministers Formulate Plan To Combat Bird Flu
West African ministers have formulated a plan to combat the spread of avian influenza through that part of the continent. The plan was agreed to during the one-day meeting of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of ministers in charge of agriculture, health, livestock, environment and integration.
This is a flyer I found, but couldn’t find the date it came out:
„Ï Liberia: Rumors of dead poultry in Montserrado, Margibi, Bong and Nimba counties were investigated. Samples were collected for confirmation. „Ï Bukina Faso This is the fifth country in Africa to report outbreak of avian influenza. The virulent H5N1 has been confirmed in dead poultry on a farm in the Saaba Department of Kadiogo province. „Ï Nigeria: The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in back yard poultry at a commercial farm in Lagos. The fast spread of the virus means the disease is defeating measures to contain it and it raises the prospects of much wider human contact with infected birds.
The above is flyer No. 8, The latest I have found is flyer No. 18 which reports H5N1 in poultry in the following countries: Nigeria, Egypte, Niger, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Djibouti.
The first African country to detect the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, Nigeria has not reported any human cases of the disease although experts warn surveillance may not be effective because of poor health services. …
…Nigerian authorities say the disease has been contained and its spread has slowed dramatically since the early weeks, but international experts say privately that the official data may not reflect the full extent of the problem.
Karina- All is quiet on the Northern African front too. Hope it stays that way. Thanks for all your efforts.
Thanks, cottontop! Nice to get a pat on the back. A pat for you, too!
Karina
just thought people on this thread might want this (I posted on the news thread)
bird cases- Nigeria
The country has so far recorded 123 cases of Avian influenza (AI) in 43 local government areas (LGAs) spread across 14 states and the FCT since its outbreak in February, according to a report…
Kaduna State had the second highest number of 15 cases recorded in Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun and Sabon Gari council areas, while Bauchi recorded 13 cases in Toro, Tafawa Balewa and Bauchi Metropolis LGAs to place third…..
….Kaduna State had the second highest number of 15 cases recorded in Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun and Sabon Gari council areas, while Bauchi recorded 13 cases in Toro, Tafawa Balewa and Bauchi Metropolis LGAs to place third. ….Lagos State came fourth with 12 cases reported in the Ojo, Agege, Ikorodu, Alimosho, Badagry, Eti-Osa, Amuwo-Odofin and Ifako-ljaiye council areas.
Placing fifth, Taraba recorded 11 cases in both Ibi and Wukari council areas, while Katsina State had nine cases from Malumfashi, Kankara, Daura and Katsina Municipal LGAs to rank sixth.
Kano State reported eight cases in four LGAs of Kumbotso, Janguza, Gezawa and Kano Municipal, followed by Nasarawa State with six cases from the Akwanga, Kokona and Lafia council areas.
Thanks, Dennis, post anytime! I need all the help I can get!
Karina
Karina @ 17:53
This is the first news out of AI in Liberia. Has it been confirmed yet? Health care there is abysmal since the civil war. It would be a death sentence.
The recent discovery of the Bird Flu pandemic Avian Influenza in the Ivory Coast has brought the government of Liberia under trepidation.
“So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person to person has been limited and has not continued beyond one person” he said.
Boakai stated that Liberia is just recovering from years of civil crisis and retrogression and as such cannot afford another human tragedy, stressing “it is therefore critical that all of us help to control the spread of the disease in Liberia.
Well, seems like they need to get their facts straight, but at least they’re concerned. It doesn’t mention the previous cases of H5N1 that were mentioned at 17:53. Still haven’t been able to confirm that.
Sorry, meant to include that that article dates from August.
This is from today: should I post in news thread as well?
Around 700,000 birds have been culled to date in Nigeria since the outbreak of Avian flu in February this year, according to a WHO official.
Dr. Chijioke Osakwe, the national professional officer of the WHO, gave the figure Friday in his presentation on “An overview of Avian influenza in Nigeria” at one-day workshop for the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Enugu. Osakwe said the birds were culled at the cost of N560 million.
He said the country’s poultry industry had 140 million birds, with “backyard” poultry farmers accounting for 60 per cent of the business.
The industry contributed nine per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, he said, noting that the contribution was significant in the national economy.
Quoting the World Bank’s prediction of a 800-million-dollar annual loss in the global poultry sector due to the raging bird disease, Osakwe said efforts must be made by all stakeholders and the citizens to stem the spread.
He described bird flu as a virus that did not require a passport to enter any country, calling for an effective campaign to educate the citizens on the need to take precautionary measures.
The WHO official likened Avian flu to the “Spanish file” which spread across the globe, killing between 20 million and 40 million people in 1918/1919.
Osakwe warned of the grave consequences of the spread of the human strain of bird flu to Nigeria.
Great job, Karina!
Karina
If it suits, to save ‘double posting’ - here and in the news thread, I recommend you just place a note in the News Thread saying come look here - I can then check while I do the News Summary and highlight the need to come here for news.
Cheers
Thanks Karina! I have ties to Liberia.
I was Peace Corps volunteer in the ‘70s.
Thanks again.
I was an exchange student to France in the 80′s. I wish I had also done something like the Peace Corps to get a feel for what a third world country is like.
Africa: UN Official Sees Bird Flu As Threat for Next Decade
In 2006, more than 30 countries reported outbreaks among wild birds or domestic poultry, Nabarro said. Although the disease did not spread quite as broadly as expected in Africa, the number of viral outbreaks worldwide was greater than in any previous year.
One of the major goals for African nations is building their capacity to deal adequately with bird flu outbreaks. Animal health services are understaffed and underbudgeted, he said.
Karina – at 16:13 and at 16:16
Merci beaucoup pour votre grand travail ici.
Interesting article. Same CFR as current Indonesia outbreaks. Wonder if they can distinguish from H5N1. Especially with 20 doctors left in the country!
Liberia: China Steps in to End Lassa Fever Outbreak
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
October 27, 2006 Posted to the web October 27, 2006
Monrovia
The Chinese Embassy in Liberia has pitched in enough drugs to treat an outbreak of the deadly lassa fever virus that the Liberian authorities had said they were powerless to stop.
A virus transmitted by rodents, lassa fever kills up to 5,000 people ever year in West Africa. It broke-out in Nimba county northern Liberia in September, quickly killing off seven of ten people diagnosed with it. Liberia’s health ministry does not have any more recent information.
Liberian health officials contacted by IRIN in September said they were short of drugs to treat people infected with lassa fever, and the United Nations warned that the country’s ramshackle health infrastructure was not able to cope with an infectious disease.
But on Thursday, officials at the Chinese Embassy in Monrovia told IRIN they would be providing enough drugs to control the outbreak, following an emergency request from the Liberian health minister.
“The total consignment is three hundred treatment medicines that can be used to treat three hundred lassa fever patients,” a Chinese embassy official told IRIN.
The same official said China is also donating drugs to treat malaria, and has provided medical equipment to hospitals in the capital. A nine-specialist team has been providing free treatment at the John F. Kennedy hospital in Monrovia.
Some 18 officials and technicians at the Liberian health ministry have also undergone training in China in malaria treatment and the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, the official said.
According to Liberia’s National Human Development Report released in August over 95 per cent of the 325 health facilities that operated before Liberia’s 14-year civil war were either completely or partially destroyed in the war. Rural health facilities were worst affected.
The same report revealed that by the time the war ended in 2003, there were less than 20 Liberian doctors left in the country. By the end of 2005, only 14 extra doctors had been trained, bringing the total to 34 doctors.
I mean 34 doctors.
Hide at 13:56 De rien, de rien.
I’m wondering if anyone can help me. I have 17 countries under West Africa, and it’s an awful lot of work. I try to check 4 news sites per country, but it ends up taking a lot of time. Would anyone be willing to help out? Maybe just take over 4–5 countries. Although if you have more time, taking one of the sections of the world that hasn’t been taken would be better. (Don’t want to be selfish!)
Karina
Hi I will let you know in about a week if I can help.
Contact in Liberia sent this quote from Liberian gov’t official
“While there have been no confirmed cases of Avian Influenza in Liberia, the virus is on the Continent of Africa and it is present in Cote d’Ivoire, so all our people must therefore remain vigilant.”
Karina, I’m on the Lookout post for South and Western Europe in French, and as a result I go through French-speaking news. Whenever I come across one for this thread, I’ll post it here.
As for double posting on the News thread, I’d think that only those news pertaining to sick/culled birds or sick/dead humans should be there also, but not the rest which is background information for a region.
BACKGROUND - IVORY COAST - CÔTE D’IVOIRE - Agricultural Information
The government will half import taxes to allow poultry products to enter the country. The season for greatest consumption of poultry is November to February. Annual consumption is 20 000 tons. Imports (for 15 000 tons in total) come from: Burkina Faso, Niger and from France (10 000 tons), Italy, Belgium and Argentina.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION - NIGER French Embassy in Niger
BF situation recap as at July 2006: BF in poultry in February 2006 in the North of the country (regions: Galawa Riga, Danbardé and Magaria, the latter bordering Nigeria, South of Zinder), poultry culled. BF in June 2006: Boko Maï Gao (Dept of Madarounfa which is a bordering Nigeriain the region of Maradi). No human illness detected. It is assumed that BF in poultry did not originate from wild birds.
In case of suspicion of flu (whether ordinary flu or avian), French citizens are advised to contact the Head Doctor of the Gamkalé Clinic.
‘NEWS SOURCES - BURKINA FASO
Le Faso Net
Agence France Presse (AFP) - Burkina Faso
Afrik.com - Burkina Faso section
Faso News
Mbolo, with links to dailies and African rss from news agencies
BACKGROUND INFORMATION - BURKINA FASO - French Embassy in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is officially free from BF, whether in humans or animals. As a precaution, the authorities of this country prohibit the import of poultry and poultry products, whether from infected or non infected countries.
The person to contact for medical information is, in Ouagadougou, the Head Doctor of the CMS.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION - SENEGAL - French Embassy in Senegal
Senegal does not have BF in birds or human, nor do its neighbours. Under the authority of the Referring Doctor of the Consulate, the General Consulate in Dakar, will inform French citizens in case of serious changes to the situation.
In case you are positive […!…] you have been contaminated by bird flu, please contact the Embassy or the Consulate by phone or email [innuendo: don’t come!]
Thanks for all the help, Frenchie Girl!
Karina, I have a suggestion, if you do not mind… If you have links to online news that you think are good for locating stories, why don’t you post the links at the beginning on the thread for everyone to search. Maybe also request that if anyone finds good source links, they could request that the links be added to yours.. That way it becomes easy for everyone to search and post when they have time. (Remember to request they always check the tread to see if it has been posted and post the title at the beginning of their post, so it is easy for people to see it.)
Just a thought…
Hi FloridaGirl, I couldn’t get on yesterday hence the delay in responding. I just look at http://www.abyznewslinks.com/wesaf.htm and go to each country. I look at two news aggregators, Pan African news agency and All Africa and then check two other newspapers from the area. So far that’s all I got. I would appreciate any suggestions, though, as I don’t think my research skills are all that good!
Karina
Nigeria govt warns against bird flu vaccinating
afrol News, 8 November - In a somewhat surprising move, the Nigerian government asked poultry farmers and veterinary doctors to desist from vaccinating poultry against the avian influenza better known as “bird flu”. Nigeria’s poultry industry has over 140 million domestic birds and the sector contributes 9 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
In a statement, Nigeria’s presidential committee tasked with preventing and managing the avian influenza acknowledged receiving reports that some poultry farmers and veterinary doctors have been vaccinating poultry against the disease, which broke out in the country in February this year.
The committee warned that vaccination of poultry was against the policy of Nigeria’s federal government. Believing that such acts were capable of jeopardising the health of poultries and consumers of poultry products, the Nigerian government asked for the vaccination of poultry to stop.
The possibility of a large-scale and nation-wide vaccination of poultry was discussed in Nigeria already in February, only weeks after the disease broke out. Estimated at a cost of US$ 15 million only in vaccines, the idea was rejected. This also was in line with recommendations from the UN’s agriculture agency FAO, which noted that tests could not differentiate between vaccinated poultry and infected poultry, causing new risks if the vaccination scheme stopped short at reaching a 100 percent coverage.
The Nigerian government this week thus repeated its established advices to national poultry farmers on the disease. Nigerian Information Minister Frank Nweke issued a statement advising poultry farmers to patronise only qualified and registered veterinary doctors in their respective states or communities.
“It is important for the public to note that avian influenza is a notifiable disease and the Animal Diseases Control Decree of 1988 makes it mandatory that its discovery or suspicion in poultry/birds is reported immediately to government veterinary officials for appropriate action,” added the statement signed by Minister Nweke.
<snip>
Thanks, Nimbus! There’s nothing said about it anywhere else, that I can see.
Karina
Nigeria: Bird Flu Again?
Daily Champion (Lagos) EDITORIAL November 17, 2006
THE giant gains made in 2005 by the nation’s agriculture and health ministries in monitoring and containing the spread of the dreaded bird influenza even before any cases were officially detected in the country may now be in serious jeopardy. That is, going by reports of un-healthy collaboration between the nation’s poultry farmers and shady veterinary doctors.
In a somewhat surprising report by the Presidential Committee on the prevention of avian influenza in the country, the nation’s poultry farmers have been accused of lack of safety in their practices.
Specifically, according to the Minister of Information, Mr Frank Nweke, the farmers and veterinary doctors are vaccinating poultry against the dreaded avian flu in their naïve attempt at protecting their birds against H5N1 infection of the estimated 140 million domestic birds in the country.
This practice, the minister said, clearly contravenes federal government’s policy on the management of the contagion.
According to the minister, avian influenza or bird flu falls under the category of Notifiable Disease and Animal Diseases (control) Decree of 1988. This makes it mandatory that any discovery or suspicion of diseases in poultry or birds should be reported immediately to government veterinary authorities who are in the best position to assess and handle the danger of the disease developing into epidemic, or even pandemic proportions, to wider human and animal populations.
In plain language, by taking matters into their own hands, the nation’s poultry farmers and their dodgy veterinarian collaborators, have merely been putting on the line an industry that is capitalized to the tune of N2 trillion and which engages 40 million Nigerians as poultry farmers, grain suppliers, transporters, cage and other equipment manufacturers, engineers, doctors and poultry product retailers.
<snip>
More than economics and money are involved here. Lives are at risk when a ‘radio-active’ issue like bird-flu is handled in a cavalier manner by ignorant, money-minded folks.
In Africa, where governments grapple daily with other man-made disasters, the addition of the bird flu scare to our list of worries will be dis-orientating to many let alone its incalculable economic harm.
During the brief reports of out-breaks in some parts of the North and in the South, about 700,000 birds were culled at the cost of $24 million U.S. It is left to the imagination what the cost will be with a full-blown pandemic, not only in terms of cash but also in human lives.
The government is well advised to fulfill its pledges and obligations to those farmers who dutifully reported out-breaks on their farms of bird flu in 2006.
Reports that many whose birds were destroyed since February 2006 have not been compensated till date by government only drives rogue farmers underground, instead of risking losing their investments and sources of livelihood by reporting their suspicions.
By this, we urge both the authorities, the farmers and their veterinary collaborators, to cooperate in saving Nigeria the tragedy of a fresh out-break of bird flu.
There are also serious concerns about the ability of some African countries to deal adequately with bird flu because of understaffed animal health services and low budget…
[Narbarro]He praised the successful efforts to combat bird flu in Vietnam and Thailand, the “good and rapid response” to outbreaks in Niger, Cameroon and Burkina Faso, and Myanmar’s rapid response to very intense outbreaks earlier this year.
Mali: International Avian Flu Meeting to Be Held in Bamako
Health and agriculture ministers from many countries around the world will gather in Bamako, Mali, December 6–8 to address issues of growing concern involving avian and pandemic influenza and international response and preparedness.
The African Union, the government of Mali and the European Union are co-organizing the conference, and the U.S. State Department is a co-sponsor.
<snip>
“Given the urgency and the seriousness of the situation,” said African Union Chairman Alpha Konaré of Mali in a statement on the conference Web site, “I therefore invite all our partners and stakeholders to leave no stone unturned in working towards our goal of minimizing HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] impact in livestock and public health domains in Africa.”
The United States is concerned about the possible decimation of the poultry population in Africa if bird flu spreads beyond the eight currently affected countries.
“If [avian influenza] continues to spread in Africa,” Lange said, “then separate from the infections that take place in humans who are very close to the chickens, you may have a loss of a primary protein source [for human diets] in some countries.”
NEWS - IVORY COAST - Africa must join fight against bird flu-WHO - Thu 23 Nov 2006 19:25:18 GMT - (Adds new cases discovered in Ivory Coast) - http://preview.tinyurl.com/ybym7u
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Africa must find resources to back international efforts to stop the spread of bird flu and help prevent a human pandemic, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday, as Ivory Coast declared a new outbreak.
Ivory Coast declared a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu on Thursday, the first in the West African country since it was first detected there in April.
Two turkeys from a flock of 20 were found dead on Nov. 9 in Abatta, a lagoon-side village on the outskirts of the economic capital Abidjan. Around eight more died over the next few days, a government veterinary official said.
Comment - Did I not mention last week that the Prime Minister was in bed with flu on his birthday and that members of Government came to bring him their best wishes? I do hope his “ordinary flu” and the one he may have passed on to his Government members is not going to mix with H5N1
I have looked at the French Google and Yahoo and could not find anything. Will search some more tomorrow.
closed and continued here