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Published Date: 2005-04-04 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/EDR> Cholera, diarrhea & dysentery update 2005 (12)
Archive Number: 20050404.0966

CHOLERA, DIARRHEA & DYSENTERY UPDATE 2005 (12)
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In this update:
Africa
[1] & [2] Cholera - Senegal (Diourbel)
[3] Cholera - Senegal
[4] Cholera - Nigeria (Kogi)
[5] Cholera - Congo DR (Ituri)
Asia
[6] Diarrhea - Bangladesh
[7] Cholera - Worldwide - WHO WER Notifications
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[1] Cholera - Senegal (Diourbel)
Date: Tue 29 Mar 2005
From: Marianne Hopp <mjhopp12@yahoo.com>
Source: WHO Outbreak Reports [edited]
<http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_03_29/en/>

Cholera in Senegal
-------------------
From 1 Jan-23 Mar 2005, the Ministry of Health, Senegal has reported a
total of 2054 cases and 8 deaths in Touba, Mbacke and Bambey districts of
Diourbel region. A pilgrimage, "le Magal de Touba," is currently taking
place, which may account for the high increase in cases in these districts
in the past week [4th week March 2005].
The outbreak appears to be extending to other regions as well. As a result
of the heightened risk of additional cases, it is critical that control
measures be put in place and activities to raise awareness about the
disease be disseminated throughout the community for increased prevention
at the individual level.
WHO is providing technical support to the Ministry of Health, including the
intensification of surveillance, case management and health promotion
activities.
_Vibrio cholerae_ has been laboratory confirmed in 14 out of 17 samples tested.
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[2] Cholera - Senegal (Diourbel)
Date: Thu 31 Mar 2005
From: Marianne Hopp <mjhopp12@yahoo.com>
Source: WHO Outbreak Reports [edited]
<http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_03_31/en/>

Cholera in Senegal - update
---------------------------
During the week of 21-27 Mar 2005, the Ministry of Health, Senegal reported
757 cases, an increase from 428 cases in the week before (see previous report
<http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_03_29/en/>).
However, the outbreak appears to be stabilizing at present.
The Ministry of Health, with WHO support, is continuing to carry out active
surveillance and to raise awareness about the disease and the need for
prevention at the individual level. During the pilgrimage "le Magal de
Touba," 120 additional medical posts were available, and the Senegalese
authorities disseminated health education messages throughout the community.
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[3] Cholera - Senegal
Date: Sun 3 Apr 2005
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: News24 [edited]
<http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1684395,00.html>

Senegal swamped by cholera
-------------------------------
Senegal has seen a sharp rise in cholera, with 18 deaths and some 1800 new
cases recorded in the last week [final week March 2005], following the
annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy Senegalese city of Touba, public
health officials said on Sat 2 Apr 2005.
"Most of the cases recorded were among those who were in Touba at the
beginning of the week [1st week April 2005]," said Pape Coumba Faye,
director of preventive medicine at the health ministry. Faye said the
government was rushing drugs to affected areas to stop the epidemic from
spreading.
Observed as a national holiday in the Muslim-majority west African state,
the annual pilgrimage is a commemoration of the departure into exile in
1895 of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, spiritual founder of the Mouride brotherhood.
Over the week leading to the celebration, hundreds of thousands of Muslims
from around Africa, and as far away as Europe, arrived in Touba to more
than double the million-strong population of Senegal's 2nd [largest] city.
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[4] Cholera - Nigeria (Kogi)
Date: Fri 1 Apr 2005
From: A-Lan Banks <A-Lan.Banks@thomson.com>
Source: ReliefWeb [edited]
<http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6AZE56?OpenDocument>

13 people died and 56 have been hospitalized following an outbreak of
cholera in central Nigeria's Kogi state, a health ministry spokesman said
on Thu 31 Mar 2005.
The disease broke out last week [final week March 2005] in the Enweli Ibaji
local government area, Roland Adedayo told AFP. He said the government had
sent vaccines and drugs to the authorities to stop the epidemic from spreading.
In March 2005, 46 people were killed and more than 100 hospitalized
following an outbreak of disease in Kusa, in Oyo state.
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[5] Cholera - Congo DR (Ituri)
Date: Mon 4 Apr 2005
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: News24 [edited]
<http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1685032,00.html>

Cholera kills 15 in DRC camps
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A cholera epidemic in camps for the displaced in eastern Congo has killed
15 people and infected nearly 400, UN officials said on Mon 4 Apr 2005. Aid
workers in several camps are scrambling to contain the outbreak, which was
detected on 27 Mar 2005 and threatens to spread across the entire region,
said Massimo Nicoletti, head of Unicef in Bunia, capital of the Ituri
province. Cholera has killed 14 people and infected 362 in a camp in Kafe,
located 40 km east of Bunia, said Nicoletti. One other person died in the
nearby Che camp, and 13 are infected, he said.
Fighting between ethnic Lendu and Hema militias has displaced nearly 100
000 people in the vast, hill-swept Djugu territory of Ituri since December
2004. About 50 000 of those displaced live in the Che and Kafe camps. The
epidemic was 1st diagnosed in Kafe, on the shores of Lake Albert, a day
before UN peacekeepers left the camp in the hands of ill-equipped Congolese
soldiers.
UN officials said on Fri 1 Apr 2005 that the ragtag government soldiers
began harassing and stealing from Kafe residents hours after the departure
of the peacekeepers, who'd been stationed there since January 2005 to
protect them from militia attacks. Many residents fled the Kafe camp for
others in nearby Che and Tchomia, sparking fears that the outbreak could
even reach Bunia, where 300 000 people live, the UN said. One case has
already been reported in Bunia, said Rachel Scott-Leflaive, spokeswoman for
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Nicoletti said the security situation had improved, but residents were
still crossing the hills to other camps to trade and do business, carrying
their infections with them. He said workers from Medecins Sans Frontieres,
or Doctors Without Borders, are leading the efforts to control the
outbreak. Aid group Oxfam, along with Unicef, are working to improve water
and sanitary conditions in the squalid lakeside camp.
"This is definitely an emergency situation," said Nicoletti. "And given the
extremely crowded conditions of the camps, it's difficult to control its
spread."
The Ituri conflict has killed over 50 000 people since 1999, and left over
600 000 homeless. The conflict came amid Congo's 1998-2002 war, which
claimed nearly 4 million lives, mostly through war-induced starvation and
disease, aid groups say.
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[6] Diarrhea - Bangladesh
Date: Sun 3 Apr 2005
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: XinHuaNet.com [edited]
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/03/content_2779747.htm>

Diarrhea breaks out in 18 districts of Bangladesh
-----------------------------------------------
Diarrhea has broken out in 18 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh, as well as
the capital Dhaka, with some 1000 fresh patients admitted to hospitals on
Sat 2 Apr 2005.
According to the New Age on Sun, 3 Apr 2005, among the 1000 patients,
mostly children, 544 were admitted to different hospitals and health
complexes in 17 districts in the northern region, while the International
Center for Diarrhea Diseases & Research Bangladesh (ICDDRB) in Dhaka alone
received over 400 sufferers on 2 Apr 2005.
The control room under the health directorate said that in March 2005, some
18 238 people were afflicted by diarrhea and admitted to different
hospitals and health complexes all over the country.
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[7] Cholera - Worldwide - WHO WER Notifications
Date: Fri 1 Apr 2005
From: Marianne Hopp <mjhopp12@yahoo.com>
Source: WHO Epidemiological Record, 1 Apr 2005 [edited]
<http://www.who.int/wer/2005/wer8013/en>

Notifications of cholera received from 25 to 31 Mar 2005
-----------------------------------------------
country / dates / cases / deaths
Africa
Benin / 1 Jan-27 Feb 2005 / 25 / 0
DR Congo / 14 Feb-13 Mar 2005 / 1377 / 22
Equatorial Guinea / 7-27 Mar 2005 / 1107 / 1
Mozambique / 1 Jan-13 Mar 2005 / 363 / 3
Senegal / 1 Jan-23 Mar 2005 / 2054 / 8
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