03 November 2006
AnnieB – at 14:17
(From the Volunteers needed thread)
Nimbus – at 12:53
I will be happy to start watching Central Africa. Just a note: Zaire no longer exists as a country; it’s now part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Central Africa : Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Zaire
There is nothing of note happening in this part of the world other than a spate of deaths in Cameroon from cholera, which is bacterial rather than viral. Is it worth mentioning?
Nimbus – at 14:26
http://tinyurl.com/y4pj2t
YAOUNDE, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A cholera outbreak has killed at least 28 people in Cameroon’s Far North province neighbouring Lake Chad, state radio reported on Thursday.
Health authorities blame the outbreak on living conditions and lack of clean drinking water which forced people to fetch water from polluted sources, the radio said.
“The hardest hit is the Logone and Chari division where 28 people have died out of 541 cases registered so far,” Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) reported.
The provincial delegate for Public Health provided the figures during an emergency meeting in Kousseri, capital of the Far North province, to seek a solution to the crisis.
Cholera, caused by water-borne bacterium, is a seasonal problem in much of West Africa. An outbreak last year killed more than 800 people across several countries in the region.
The bacterium spreads through contact with faeces and is associated with heavy rains that flood latrines and contaminate drinking water.
The disease can kill within 24 hours by inducing vomiting and diarrhoea that cause severe dehydration and shock, but it is easily treatable with a mixture of water and rehydration salts.
According to the United Nations, West and Central Africa has the lowest levels of clean water and sanitation in the world. One in five children die before the age of five, often due to diarrhoea and water-borne diseases.
Nimbus – at 18:03
Nimbus – at 18:06
Sorry about those links being all jammed together. :(
I’ll make a prettier list when there are more links to add.
AnnieB – at 18:09
Great start Nimbus - and thankyou.
This link http://www.oie.int/eng/info/hebdo/a_csum.htm
is the OIE page for all animal diseases reported in the past 18 months. I note that Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon have all registered ‘something’ as well - I haven’t gone into the detail of it but we can keep it in mind if something else should start to show.
09 November 2006
MaMa – at 00:19
‘A cholera outbreak has killed at least 28 people in Cameroon’s Far North province neighbouring Lake Chad. Health authorities blame the outbreak on living conditions and lack of clean drinking water which forced people to fetch water from polluted sources. “The hardest hit is the Logone and Chari division where 28 people have died out of 541 cases registered so far,” Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) reported. The provincial delegate for Public Health provided the figures during an emergency meeting in Kousseri, capital of the Far North province, to seek a solution to the crisis. Cholera, caused by water-borne bacterium, is a seasonal problem in much of West Africa. An outbreak last year killed more than 800 people across several countries in the region. The bacterium spreads through contact with faeces and is associated with heavy rains that flood latrines and contaminate drinking water. The disease can kill within 24 hours by inducing vomiting and diarrhoea that cause severe dehydration and shock, but it is easily treatable with a mixture of water and rehydration salts. According to the United Nations, West and Central Africa has the lowest levels of clean water and sanitation in the world. One in five children die before the age of five, often due to diarrhoea and water-borne diseases.’
http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=8230&cat=dis&lang=eng
anonymous – at 00:59
Check the breaking Promed report for the DNC Congo where there are now 1100 suspected cases. They are stating that it might be the plague (pneumonic), but the kill rate for untreated plague is nearly 95% to 100% and yet the numbers they are reporting is roughly 5% (50 deaths and note below 50 exact samples!) and it is not yet confirmed that it is the plague. The location is extremely close to the Sudan and Rift Valley where H5N1 has been reported…could be our largest cluster to date if H5N1, but it does not take a doctor to figure out that this is certainly not pneumonic plague.
Story below
The local authorities
have now [11 Nov 2006] reported 1174 suspected cases, including 50
deaths. More than 50 samples have been collected and analyzed;
however, the diagnosis of plague has not been finally laboratory confirmed.
A 5-person team from WHO and the Ministry of Health will return to
the field to re-assess the situation with the local medical staff and
international non-governmental organizations working in the affected areas.
For more information, see the WHO plague fact sheet at
<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs267/en/index.html>.
—
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[In the previous post on 15 Oct 2006 — see belwo — some of the
cases had been apparently been confirmed as plague, but it was noted
that the case fatality rate seemed to be too low for all cases to be
due to pneumonic plague, a disease with a much higher mortality rate.
A map of Congo DR showing the northeast Orientale (also written
Oriental or Eastern) province, where Haut-Uele district is located,
can be found at:
anonymous – at 01:01
Too late at night…casued the side scroll, my apologies, I did not think the map would post.
side scroll alert – at 07:37
10 November 2006
anonymous – at 00:08
Here is what the WHO says from their site, note no explanation for why this penumonic plague, the most lethal form only has a roughly 5% to 7% fatality rate that should be closer to 90% or higher without treatment. They are in fact still trying to determine what ‘it’ is even though the WHO’s own site says rapid testing is capable on site for the pestis bacteria. I am suspicios, looks like H5N1 to me…right where Sudan has had problems.
“7 November 2006
As of 29 September 2006, WHO received reports of a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak in 4 health zones in Haut-Uele district, Oriental province in the north-eastern part of the country. The local authorities have now reported 1174 suspected cases including 50 deaths. More than 50 samples have been collected and analysed; however, the diagnosis of plague has not been finally laboratory confirmed.
A 5-person team from WHO and the Ministry of Health will return to the field to re-assess the situation with the local medical staff and international nongovernmental organizations working in the affected areas. “
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2006_11_07/en/index.html
14 November 2006
Nimbus – at 18:02
Cameroon: Yellow-Fever Campaign Launched in Messamena
The national vaccination campaign against yellow-fever targets seven endemic zones in the country.
Since 2003, eight cases of the yellow-fever virus have been registered in Cameroon. The last case was recorded this year in Messamena, in the Upper-Nyong Division in the East Province. This justifies why the Minister of Public Health, Urbain Olanguena Awono, yesterday in Messamena, launched the national vaccination campaign against yellow-fever. The campaign which runs from November 13 to 22, 2006, was launched in the presence of several members of government, the representatives of WHO and UNICEF in Cameroon.
<snip>
Yellow fever is a viral disease that has caused large epidemics in Africa and the Americas. It can be recognized from historic texts stretching back 400 years. Infection causes a wide spectrum of disease, from mild symptoms to severe illness and death. The “yellow” in the name is explained by the jaundice that affects some patients. The disease is caused by the yellow fever virus, which belongs to the flavivirus group. While some infections have no symptoms whatsoever, the first, “acute”, phase is normally characterized by fever, muscle pain (with prominent backache), headache, shivers, loss of appetite, nausea and/or vomiting. Humans and monkeys are the principal animals to be infected. The virus is carried from one animal to another (horizontal transmission) by a biting mosquito (the vector). The mosquito can also pass the virus via infected eggs to its offspring (vertical transmission).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611140556.html
18 November 2006
Nimbus – at 11:05
Scientists predict next Ebola outbreak
afrol News, 17 November - The next Ebola outbreak should be expected to occur “in northern Congo Brazzaville, towards Cameroon and the Central African Republic,” according to African scientists that have closely studied the pattern of the deadly disease. They found that Ebola affect many Central African mammals besides humans and that the disease fluctuates with climate variables throughout the Gabon-Congo region, making predictions possible.
Long article here: http://www.afrol.com/articles/22756
23 November 2006
Closed and Continued – at 23:21
closed and continued here
