Friday, November 12, 2010

Cholera spreads from person to person

12/11 10:45 CET

The disease in Haiti continues to claim victims. More than 800 deaths recorded since its introduction in mid-October. These last four days, about 150 people died, indicating that the epidemic is exponential.

Here in the slum of Cite Soleil, doctors without borders receive more patients each day, and for good reason: "If you look at it, says Virginia Gauder, who is a nurse, we find that the contamination is people to people. It's not really the water. And certainly, in Port-au-Prince, this is due to the proximity of the population. People living in overcrowded slums. Contamination increases because of that. "

The authorities believe that a vaccine is excluded for the moment, because it is not effective in full epidemic. 10 months after the quake, the nightmare of Haitians is not complete: an earthquake of low magnitude was felt yesterday, causing panic in a school near Port-au-Prince.

Bird flu virus detected


Bird flu virus found in poultry farm
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the bird flu virus H5N1 was detected in a poultry farm. Precaution to be killed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture all 17 000 ducks and geese.

(12/11/2010) In a poultry farm in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern dangerous for humans bird flu virus H5N1 has been detected. Then every 17 000 ducks and geese were killed to prevent a possible spread to other animals. A hastily convened Working Group of the Agricultural Ministry in Schwerin consults on how to proceed. The flu viruses are suspected to develop in highly contagious.

Bird flu virus detected in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
In Parchim was in a fattening and poultry operation of the H5N1 bird flu virus found in some animals. For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture led the company concerned, the mass slaughter of 17,000 ducks and geese to prevent further spread to other livestock, such as the Ministry announced on Friday.

Influenza could be highly contagious
The flu has the dangerous property from a non-or slightly sickening to develop into a highly contagious disease. "Therein lies the danger," said state veterinarian Maria Dayen. Now a specific company is in compliance with the kill for Disease Control guidelines all the animals of the business. Then the carcasses burned or otherwise rendered harmless. The company will, however, reimbursed from the so-called animal-disease control office of the monetary value of animals slaughtered.

Exclusion zone established around the poultry farm
As the district administration informed Parchim to the mast establish a restricted zone has been set up by one kilometer. What happens next was called, the manufacturer voluntarily take on the national monitoring program for avian influenza (bird flu) in part. This program was specifically set up for to detect a virus infection occur in time. It is in those routinely carried out investigation it was found in some blood samples from animals influenza A antibodies of subtype H 5. These findings suggest an appropriate infection. Although this form of the virus is harmless at first, caused by mutations of the pathogen can develop further and develop a high relevance to the health of animals and humans. The findings were supported by State Office for Agriculture, Food Safety and Fisheries and by the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute on the island of Riems confirmed as a national reference laboratory. So far, the existence of a highly pathogenic virus was excluded.

Health risk to humans is currently safe
Finally, the public had been alarmed by the spread of bird flu in 2006. Many wild birds and animals in Germany were infected with the avian virus H5N1. After the initial panic, however, could be said that the bird flu virus was transmitted in recent years only few to mammals and humans. However, the transfer was completed, the infection is often fatal. The risk to humans of contracting H5N1 infection, health experts and scientists of the world's estimated as extremely low. Affected by the infections were lived mostly people who became ill in an intensive contact with the birds. This relationship was found superficially in Asian countries.

Germany-17 000 animals are killed for fear of bird flu

11.12.2010


Schwerin (AFP). kill for fear of bird flu must be a poultry farmer in the county of Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 17 000 ducks and geese. It ordered the district administration on Friday, such as Schwerin Agriculture Ministry said.

In the animals during a routine check virus had been identified that can develop in the event of further dissemination of the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus. The finding of influenza A virus H5N2 is the Ministry of Agriculture, according Patogen low, and the affected birds were healthy.

The animals are now of a special operation to be killed and destroyed to prevent the virus from spreading to other flocks. Bird flu was last detected in 2006 on the island of Ruegen in great extent. Wild birds were affected such as swans and wild ducks. Nevertheless, many livestock were killed as a precaution.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

EU Donates 22 Ambulances

Friday, November 12, 2010 15:26 pm
JAKARTA - MICOM: The European Union will provide 22 ambulances to hospitals in Indonesia to support controlling bird flu outbreaks.

A press release received here on Friday (12/11) mentions the 22 ambulance was symbolically handed over the Minister of Health Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih to three hospitals namely Dr Friendship, Army Hospital Gatot Subroto both in Jakarta and hospitals Serang, Banten. Delivery of cars to the three hospitals that coincided with the celebration ceremony of the National Health Day 46th November 12, 2010 in the Ministry of Health in Jakarta.

It is said, an ambulance assistance is provided in the context of projects funded by the European Union which aims to support the Indonesian government's efforts to control bird flu outbreaks in humans and pandemic flu preparedness. The project entitled 'National strategy for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic influenza preparedness in humans conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) together with the Ministry of Health of Indonesia with grant aid of 13.5 million euros from the European Union. The EU is the largest donor to Indonesia in an effort to control avian influenza (AI) H5NI.

Typhoid kills eight in Bundibugyo

Thursday, 11th November, 2010
E-mail articleE-mail article Print articlePrint article

By Hope Mafaranga
and John Odyek


EIGHT people are suspected to have died of typhoid in Budibugyo district contrary to reports that there was an outbreak of ebola in the area.

Dr. Issa Makumbi, an epidemiologist at the health ministry, said: “We highly suspect typhoid because the tests done for ebola at the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA and Entebbe were negative.

"We discussed with the district and have developed an action plan. District officials are sensitising people on what to do.”

He added that health centres had also been prepared to manage the cases.
Makumbi said the health ministry was still carrying out investigations on the cause of deaths.

The deaths have created fear among the residents who suspect the cause to be ebola, which hit the area three years ago, killing 38 people and leaving153 infected with the virus.

Residents also suspected marburg fever, which hit Kamwenge district in 2008.

James Ndyesika, the Bundibugyo heath officer, said 17 people were infected, while eight had died in the last four days.

He disclosed that the disease attacked Kasitu sub-county and all the deceased were below 17 years of age.

Ndyesika said the disease presents with high temperature, stomach ache, diarrhoea, vomiting and urinating blood.

The patients were first treated with coartem, a first line treatment for malaria, but they did not respond to the medication.

This, he said, prompted the officials from the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to take more samples to Atlanta for further investigations.

Fears rise with more cholera deaths in Haiti capital



AFP/File – A boy looks at a man in an ambulance on November 10, at the hospital "Medecins Sans Frontieres" …




by Clarens Renois Clarens Renois 2 hrs 41 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Haiti's cholera crisis deepened on Thursday as the toll soared again and three more deaths in the teeming capital raised fears the epidemic could explode in camps full of [COLOR=#366388 !important][COLOR=#366388 !important]earthquake [COLOR=#366388 !important]survivors[/color][/color][/color]...
Haitian authorities have been warned to expect a different scale of disaster if cholera takes hold in Port-au-Prince, much of which was flattened by a January earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people.
An estimated 1.3 million Haitians live in refugee camps, most in tent cities around the capital where water-borne cholera could spread easily in filthy conditions where scarce supplies are shared for cooking and washing.
The Haitian health ministry says 724 people have now died from the highly contagious disease and the number of infections around the country has passed the 11,000 mark.
The outbreak, Haiti's first in more than 50 years, erupted in the Artibonite River valley in mid-October and initially seemed to have been contained to central and northern areas.
But there have been roughly 1,000 new cases each day this week and the death curve is getting steadily steeper with 60 new fatalities recorded on Wednesday and more than 80 on Thursday.
More worrying still is the fact that three more deaths have been confirmed in Port-au-Prince, which recorded its first fatality from the disease on Tuesday.
"If cholera cases continue to rise at this rate, we'll quickly be overwhelmed," warned Yves Lambert, head of infectious diseases at the main public hospital in central Port-au-Prince...
"Think about all the rural communities in which there are no doctors... no nurses... in which people are dying," said David Walton, a doctor from Boston with 13 years of experience treating patients in Haiti.
"(Cholera) is there and its (infection rate is) much higher. We're just not hearing about it," Walton told CBS's "60 Minutes."

Desperate scenes were described earlier in the week in the major northern town of Gonaives where some 60 people were said to have died with cholera-like symptoms in just a few days.
"Sick people died on the way to the hospital, the bodies were covered in blankets and left near the town cemetery," mayor Adolphe Jean-Francois told AFP...
The Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the UN's World Health Organization, has warned Haiti to expect hundreds of thousands of cases of cholera over several years now that the disease appears to have taken hold.

Cholera Deaths Double in Aftermath of Hurricane Tomas


COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Nov. 11, 2010) – Haitian and international health officials acknowledged today the cholera epidemic continues to grow at an alarming rate, and is now "a matter of national security." Food For The Poor has shipped and airlifted containers of critically needed supplies such as desperately sought-after medicines, hygiene kits, fluids to rehydrate patients, and blankets. Rains and severe flooding associated with Hurricane Tomas facilitated the spread of the quick-killing disease.

With thousands infected, the situation continues to act as a reminder of the importance of access to clean water and to moving earthquake survivors into permanent housing. Food For The Poor remains committed to investing in sanitation and water projects throughout the country. Since the earthquake, Food For The Poor has shipped more than 1,250 containers of aid and has built more than 1,500 permanent, concrete block two-room homes with sanitation units.

Three weeks after cholera was confirmed in the Caribbean nation, the waterborne sickness has claimed at least 643 lives, mostly in the countryside, according to Associated Press reports from Haiti. The AP reported that approximately 10,000 people are infected and have been hospitalized for cholera throughout Haiti with symptoms including serious diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Consensus is that the deaths usually come from the extreme shock brought on by dehydration.

"Due to the lack of sanitary conditions for more than a million displaced earthquake survivors the threat of an epidemic has been a real possibility for months," said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor President/CEO. "The painful reality is that death has become all too common for the people of Haiti. We have heard from the clinics that mothers continue to rock their sick children in their arms in hopes of keeping their babies' hearts beating."

"There are so many people who are suffering in Haiti. Their anguish truly hurts my heart," said Mahfood, whose agency's 24-year tenure in Haiti has aided the nonprofit's quick response.

"Many [in Haiti] try to live without knowing really where to go," said Rev. Duken Augustin, who partners with Food For The Poor in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. "However, as we visited the victims yesterday, I was reminded how much the people count on Food For The Poor. A lady who lost her small business in the waters told me with tears, 'My situation has never been so difficult. I don't know what I am going to do to feed my five children, but seeing you here today is comforting. I know that I am not alone.'"

"This is the kind of support that we are trying to bring, especially now that everything seems to go against the country," said Augustin. "We know that we are not alone. Thank God and many blessings to all of you."

Access to clean water is a matter of life and death for the people of Haiti. In Haiti, there are a lot of misconceptions about how cholera is spread. The people are afraid now about food and water supplies.

Food For The Poor has moved quickly to ship and install 30 solar-powered filtration units in Haiti's affected Artibonite region since the cholera outbreak. Water Missions International, in partnership with Food For The Poor, has helped to install the water filtration units. The filtration systems each can treat up to 10,000 gallons of water per day and reduce waterborne diseases by removing suspended pathogens.

A Food For The Poor-Haiti employee recently spoke to a woman near one of the water filtration units in Petit Reviere, in Haiti's affected Artibonite region. She had recently lost several friends to the cholera outbreak and was desperately trying to keep her family safe. She told the officer, "If it was not for Food For The Poor, I would be dead by now."

"The epidemic of cholera, a highly contagious disease, is no longer a simple emergency, it's now a matter of national security," said the director of Haiti's health ministry, Gabriel Thimote, at a press conference on Nov. 9.

Right now, Food For The Poor is in a race against time to collect much-needed supplies: evaporated and condensed milk, canned mackerel, canned corn beef, canned chicken, sardines, Spam, and Vienna sausages with an expiration date six months or longer; Powerade, Gatorade, and Pedialyte; hygiene kits: with soap, toothpaste, feminine personal-care items, and diapers. Food For The Poor will not accept clothing, shoes, or water; we obtain trailer loads of these items from donors.

To learn how to help, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/emergency or make a $10 donation by texting "HAITI" to 25383.

Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Haiti cholera toll at 800, worry for U.S.: CDC expert

PORT-AU-PRINCE Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:07pm EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The death toll in Haiti's cholera epidemic climbed on Thursday, reaching 800, according to a U.S. medical expert who expressed concern about risk of transmission to the United States and other countries.
...

Ezra Barzilay, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the health emergency created by the epidemic was worsening.

"As of November 8, we had about 640 deaths. Today we are at 800," he said in a call from Haiti to participants at a medical conference in Biloxi, Mississippi.

"The situation here is more dire every day. Haitians are in line (for treatment). Hospital beds are gone. Hospitals are completely overrun," he said, adding local medical staff were being forced into choices over which patients they treated.

...Ten deaths had been recorded in the capital Port-au-Prince, where authorities fear contagion in crowded camps housing earthquake survivors.

In his call to the Biloxi conference, CDC's Barzilay said U.S. health authorities were worried about the possibility of cholera spreading to Haiti's neighbors, including the United States, just two hours flying time away...

hattip Pathfinder

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

County hospital flu outbreak began late inspection Takanosu

09 county, city hospitals Kitaakita Takanosu (Dr. Naka Akira) in seasonal influenza outbreaks, announced that two people were killed and a total of 80 teens and 90-something male patients on the same day. 死者は8人となった。 Eight people were dead. Two days at the county understand the outbreak was found not to be asked to provide samples to the hospital for more tests. According to the prefecture of the dead came out on this scale outbreak of infection in hospitals is the first time. Announced at a press conference Tuesday.

According to the prefecture, and two others were treated with Tamiflu for a simple test came out positive. He died of sudden turn for the worse on Tuesday. Current HIV at the hospital yesterday afternoon 11 of 10 people.
Said Province, by providing detailed inspection of a total of 12 samples of two men killed 10 people. A man shows, including six people tested positive for the virus Hong Kong, six were negative. Infected persons have been given Tamiflu everyone.

Province has so far delayed the announcement as a reason for the outbreaks, the administration of Tamiflu for the presence of infection is also confusing to conduct a thorough examination, and had failed to make a detailed examination at an early stage. The county asked collected four days, get the next five days. 6日に詳細検査を行い、ウイルスを特定した。 06 details the inspection and identified the virus.

(2010/11/10 08:57 更新) (Updated 2010/11/10 08:57

Fear of cholera outbreak grows in Haiti's overcrowded capital

Health officials expect the disease to spread rapidly among Port-au-Prince's 3 million people

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Official to "World Health": bird flu pass from person to person through the next four years "

Editing date 07/11/2010

Warned Dr. Mustafa Orhan Director of the Regional Centre for Avian Health Organization's global mutation of bird flu, that he had the ability to transfer infection from an infected person to another sound, when it was only in the past on transmission from infected birds to humans. "Said Orhan, it is with the onset of winter and low temperatures the virus spreads and multiplies again, but this year and years to come will be more dangerous than its predecessor, according to the Egyptians, because the large number of human contact with birds may lead to the mutation of the disease, and HIV transmission from birds to humans, then after a move from an infected person to another sound, and expected this to occur during the next four years, "one hundred per cent". "

Egypt: Minister of Health: Emergency crucial to combat bird flu

Saturday, 6 - 11 - 2010

Cairo: the High Commission of avian influenza in the first meeting yesterday under the chairmanship of the Minister of Health and the membership of a group of ministers, governors and the arrival rate of deaths from the disease in Egypt to 30%.

When I arrived in the global proportion to 60% in some East Asian countries, 80%, and confirmed the Committee to declare a state of emergency in conjunction with the onset of winter this year due to the continued presence of the virus in Egypt, also announced that the Ministry of Health registered 36 cases and deaths since the virus so far in addition to 112 cases, according to the newspaper "Al Ahram".

For his part, Maj. Gen. Hassan benign General Coordinator of the Committee during its first meeting, the Cabinet of the Ministry of Health is scheduled to be held in the Committee fastens with the onset of winter, which is witnessing an increase in the spread of the virus.

People susceptible to infection or bird flu mutation in Egypt

Nov 07 2010 16:15

Out that the bird flu virus can infect humans and birds from the dead (H5N1) viruses were collected from chickens in Egypt and among the findings of mutations that make it easier for people infected with microorganisms, Osaka University compiled by 07 research groups from Egypt, Alexandria University Adjunct Fellow of the Institute for Watanabe Youhei disease.
Watanabe added, "In Egypt and the increasing number of H5N1 human infection of the virus may be the cause. Infect humans and spread easily, but still not considered, the virus must be closely monitored "he said. 08 Japanese Society for Virology at the announcement conference in Tokushima City.
Against the bird flu virus infection is usually on the viral surface proteins can bind, "bird-type receptor" is limited to cells with. Upper airway receptors of the type of person who does not have a bird-type receptor, the virus infects birds easily to people.
Watanabe et al, but between 2007 and analyzing the genes of the virus from chickens and ducks were collected in Egypt in 09 years, and some mutations in viral surface proteins were bound to make it easier to human receptors.