Published Date: 2007-04-27 11:00:02
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Cholera, diarrhea & dysentery update 2007 (18)
Archive Number: 20070427.1371
CHOLERA, DIARRHEA & DYSENTERY UPDATE 2007 (18)
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A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
In this update:
Africa
[1] Cholera - Kenya (Northeastern Province)
[2] Cholera - Kenya (Rift Valley Province)
Asia
[3] Cholera - India (West Bengal)
[4] Cholera - worldwide: WHO WER notifications
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[1] Cholera - Kenya (Northeastern Province)
Date: Wed 25 Apr 2007
Source: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation [edited]
<http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=42260>
[Following a cholera outbreak in the town of Mandera,] at least 3
people have died, among them a 4-year-old girl. Six others are
admitted at Mandera district hospital.
Area medical officer, Dr. Hassan Adan, says a team of medical
personnel has been dispatched to the affected areas in a bid to bring
the situation under control. Hassan said samples were sent to the
National public health laboratory where the results [were] positive
for cholera.
He said the 3 people died before samples had tested positive for the
highly contagious disease. The officer said the ministry will
intensify a public awareness campaign and appealed to members of the
public to cooperate in order to bring the disease under control.
[Byline: Clare Wanja/Kna]
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ProMED-mail
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[A map of Kenya can be found at
<http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/kenya.pdf>. Mandera
is in extreme northeastern Kenya close to the borders with Somalia
and Ethiopia. The next post relates to disease in the northwestern
part of the country. - Mod.LL]
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[2] Cholera - Kenya (Rift Valley Province)
Date: Tue 24 Apr 2007
Source: The Standard [edited]
<http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143967742>
Health workers have been dispatched to a village in Turkana South
following a cholera outbreak that the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) says has killed 10 people. But speaking in Nakuru,
the Rift Valley provincial medical chief, Dr Simon Kibias, said only
3 deaths had been confirmed.
An ICRC official based in Turkwel, who preferred to remain anonymous,
said the outbreak had claimed 10 lives in the past week. "The victims
succumbed after severe bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. Villagers have
told us that they have buried 10 bodies and taken dozens others
infected to hospital," said the official.
Health workers at Nakwamoru Catholic Mission Hospital said they were
treating 20 cholera patients.
The village is 70 km. (43.5 miles) from Marich, in West Pokot
District, where the disease recently killed 11 people. Villagers in
West Pokot and Turkana districts share the Muruny River, whose water
was suspected to be the cause of the outbreak.
Large populations from the 2 districts have no access to clean water.
Following the West Pokot outbreak, health authorities ordered the
closure of eating-places and warned residents to stop using the
river. But residents have to walk [a long distance] to the few
boreholes available.
[Byline: Osinde Obare]
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[3] Cholera - India (West Bengal)
Date: Wed 25 April 2007
Source: The Statesman [edited]
<http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&theme=&usrsess=1&id=154712>
The water-borne disease that has claimed 2 lives and left more than
1500 people ill in the Bally municipality area of Howrah over the
past 12 days has been diagnosed as cholera.
Samples collected from the patients admitted to different hospitals
in Howrah were examined at the School of Tropical Medicine and all
the 11 samples tested positive for cholera. The sample of drinking
water supplied by the Bally municipality was also found to be
contaminated. According to reports, the drinking water of the area
has fecal contamination and is not fit for consumption.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
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[Bally is a small town at the northeastern tip of the Howrah District
in West Bengal, India, on the banks of the river Ganges. West Bengal
is in northeast India and can be found on a map at
<http://www.destinationsindia.com/images/india/india.gif>. - Mod.LL]
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[4] Cholera - worldwide: WHO WER notifications
Date: Fri 27 Apr 2007
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) Weekly Epidemiological Record
(WER) [edited]
<http://www.who.int/wer/2007/wer8217/en/index.html>
Notifications of cholera received from 20 to 26 Apr 2007
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Country / Dates / Cases / Deaths
Africa
Guinea / 9-15 Apr 2007 / 8 / 0
Liberia / 12 Mar-15 Apr 2007 / 117 / 0
Sudan / 2-8 Apr 2007 / 451 / 13
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Marianne Hopp