Published Date: 1999-03-19 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/EDR> Diarrhoeal disease, fatal - Kenya (Tana River) (02)
Archive Number: 19990319.0432

DIARRHEAL DISEASE, FATAL - KENYA (TANA RIVER) (02)
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Diarrhoeal disease, fatal - Kenya (Tana River): RFI 990318130606
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 02:15:07 -0500
To: promed@usa.healthnet.org
From: Thomas James Allen <tjallen@pipeline.com>

I am an ordinary ProMED-mail reader. I have followed RVF reports
on the web since the winter 1997-98 outbreak.
The following article appeared in The Nation, Nairobi, Kenya.
In contrast to this report, FAO/WHO recently released a report saying
RVF is very unlikely at this time, due to drought and other conditions.
I have also appended this report below.
[This is the kind of balanced reporting we like to see from our
subscribers! - Mod.JW
***
[1
Date: March 16, 1999
Source: The Nation, Nation Newspapers Limited, P.O. Box 49010, Nairobi,
Kenya
Tel: 254 2 221222/337710 | Fax: 214531/ 213946
E-mail: ken@africaonline.co.ke

Mysterious disease kills 27 in Kenya's Tana River District
-----------------------------------------------------
March 16, 1999
By Nation Correspondent
[edited
Nairobi - Twenty seven people in Tana River District have died of a disease
suspected to be Rift Valley Fever. Seven people are reported to have died in
the past seven days in Bura and Galole divisions.
A report from the Catholic Medical Services indicates that the disease
struck 16 villages in the collapsed Bura Irrigation Scheme.
Other reports from the neighbouring Garissa District say that more than 25
people died from the disease in Ijara sub-district. Although the victims
tested positive for malaria and typhoid, the reports said, they did not
respond to treatment. Most of the victims are children aged between one and
five years.
Nurses at Hola District Hospital said most of the victims suffered severe
diarrhoea
and vomiting. The medical officer of health, Dr C.M. Karithi, confirmed
cases of dysentery in Bura and attributed the outbreak to persistent water
shortage in the area.
***
[2
Date: 05 Mar 1999
From: R e l i e f W e b http://www.reliefweb.int
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Risk of Rift Valley fever minimalized in Horn of Africa
------------------------------------------------------------------------
says WHO and FAO
Press Release 99/08 JOINT FAO/WHO [edited
Rome/Alexandria (Egypt)/ Harare (Zimbabwe), 5 March 1999.-
The risk ofinfection with the Rift Valley fever virus, for
both humans and animals, has been reduced to minimal or negligible
proportions in the countries of the Horn of Africa, after an
epidemic lasting from October 1997 to March 1998 in Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia
and Ethiopia, a joint statement by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) said today.
The four countries are now in a better than normal situation with regard to
Rift Valley fever and other diseases transmitted
through insects to humans and animals, including malaria in humans; a
remarkable improvement due to both favorable climatic
conditions and immunity developed by a large proportion of livestock
infected with the disease in 1997-1998, the joint
WHO/FAO statement underlined.
"Remote sensing satellite data of climatic conditions fully support ground
observations that conditions in the Horn of Africa
countries are highly unfavorable for multiplication of mosquito vectors of
the Rift Valley fever virus. Therefore, the risk of a Rift
Valley fever epidemic occurring soon is virtually nil," the two UN agencies
said.
"Climatic conditions in the four countries since mid-1998 returned to normal
or below normal rainfall amounts and crop growing
conditions. Flooding which would allow multiplication of mosquitoes has not
occurred. Thus the risk of humans or livestock
being infected with Rift Valley fever has returned to historically extremely
low levels."
Regarding the export of livestock by the countries of the Horn of Africa the
joint WHO/FAO statement said "the present
extremely low risk of Rift Valley fever infection in livestock is comparable
to the risk in former years that permitted the safe
export of livestock."
"The chance of exported livestock being infected with Rift Valley fever
virus and transmitting the disease to humans is at or
below the historically extremely low levels that allowed safe export of
livestock in the past," the joint statement emphasized.
WHO recommended special precautions against mosquito bites in humans working
or travelling in Rift Valley fever infected
areas starting in late 1997. "These special precautions can now be relaxed
to normal malaria-specific precautionary levels in
view of the very much diminished risk of Rift Valley fever," the joint
WHO/FAO statement said.
Finally, WHO and FAO underlined that although there have been no reports of
Rift Valley fever for over a year from the
epidemic areas in Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, both organizations
will continue to monitor climatic conditions and
animal and human health with a focus on Rift Valley fever. "Subsequent
reports by the two organizations will be issued as and
when conditions change," the joint statement indicated.
For further information, please contact in Rome
FAO media officer Mr. Pierre Antonios (tel.: 39.06.57 05 34 73) or
FAO expert Dr. David Ward (tel.: 39.06.57 05 64 64)
and in Alexandria
(Egypt) Dr. Bijan Sadrizadeh (tel.:203.48300090).
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@usa.healthnet.org>
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