New cholera outbreak in eastern Zimbabwe | Haiti cholera death toll tops 500 | Doctor says cholera may have reached Haitian capital | New Research May Help Determine Where New Outbreaks of Cholera May Occur
Campbell, Dan
New cholera outbreak in eastern Zimbabwe kills 16, sickens hundreds
Nov 8, 2010 – HARARE (BNO NEWS) — At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds more are ill after a fresh cholera outbreak in eastern Zimbabwe, according to state-run media on Monday.
The state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported that the epicenter of the latest cholera outbreak is in Marange District of Manicaland Province, killing at least sixteen people since October.
“Thirteen were community deaths where the people died at their homes and 3 were institutional deaths,” said Zimbabwean Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Douglas Mombeshora.
Mombeshora said another 669 people are suspected to be suffering from cholera, while 86 others are confirmed to have cholera. Most of the cases are reportedly linked to illegal diamond mining activities in Chiadzwa, where miners live in unhygienic conditions.
The new outbreak comes only months after most of the country’s ongoing cholera epidemic appeared to have passed. The epidemic, which began in August 2008, killed at least 4,300 people and sickened up to 100,000 others.
“We have noticed also that there is a general tendency by people to slacken when they think that the worst is over,” said Mombeshora, referring to the cholera epidemic. “After last year’s cholera outbreak, people had learnt not to shake hands but that is all a thing of the past now, people are back to their old ways of doing things including eating cold food.”
Mombeshora also added that the new outbreak might be the result of illegal immigrants who came from Mozambique. “Investigations are still being done because we want to determine the exact cause of the outbreak again, but we are not ruling out the unhygienic conditions and illegal border jumpers from Mozambique,” he added.
The broadcaster said the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is working in collaboration with theInternational Rescue Committee (IRC) to contain the outbreak in the area, which could get worse by the rainy season.
Haiti cholera death toll tops 500
Monday, November 08, 2010, PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The death toll from the cholera outbreak topped 500 this morning amid fears that the disease may have now reached the capital.
Dr Kara Gibson of the American charity Samaritan’s Purse told the international media that some people in the city’s biggest slum have symptoms of the disease after the Ministry of Health here said 501 persons had died from the disease so far.
It said that more than 7,000 people have been infected across the country with the disease, which is caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated water or food.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Haiti-cholera-death-toll-tops-500
It causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to severe dehydration, but can kill quickly. It is treated easily through rehydration and antibiotics.
Dr
Gibson said that patients in the slum of Cite Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, have a
more severe form of watery diarrhoea and fears that the disease will now spread
even faster, despite humanitarian efforts to stem it.
“Now
that it is in Cite Soleil, you can expect to see it just explode,” Dr Gibson
said, adding that the hospital in that areas is already at capacity.
Meanwhile, Russia said it is ready to offer vaccine to Haiti to deal with the outbreak.
Russia’s chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko said that in Haiti there are no specialists who could administer the vaccine.
He said that while there are no Russian tourists in Haiti, but the neighbouring Dominican Republic is popular with Russians. In this regard, he called on Russian citizens to refrain from trips to the Caribbean.
Over
the weekend, the Haitian government and the United Nations appealed to donors
for nearly US$19 million to cover urgent humanitarian needs. There are also
fears that the river which has been the source of the cholera epidemic is
expected to overflow today after been swollen by heavy rains from Hurricane
Tomas.
People
along the river are being urged to evacuate with their livestock. United Nations
officials say engineers were forced to let water pass through a dam on the Artibonite River yesterday.
Doctor says cholera may have reached Haitian capital
Nov 8, 2010, BBC News – A doctor in Haiti‘s capital, Port-au-Prince, says she has seen cases of suspected cholera, sparking fears that the epidemic has spread to the city.
Dr Kara Gibson of the American charity Samaritan’s Purse told the BBC that some people in the city’s biggest slum have symptoms of the disease.
The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan says there are concerns that the disease will now spread even faster, despite humanitarian efforts to stem it.
Link with video - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11710144
New Research May Help Determine Where New Outbreaks of Cholera May Occur
07 November 2010 – Health officials are concerned that Hurricane Tomas could cause the cholera outbreak inHaiti to get even worse. The waterborne disease is already blamed for the deaths of more than 400 people there.
Before Tomas dumped a massive amount of rain on Haiti, doctors treated cholera patients in hospital tents. Flooding from the storm could cause cholera to spread as sewage and other refuse seeps into tents where many people have been living since January’s devastating earthquake.
Cholera is a terrible new disease for Haiti, but conditions for its spread have been ripe for years. Haiti’s public health infrastructure is weak, many people do not have access to basic sanitation, and especially in rural areas, people do not have clean drinking water.
Cholera causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. It can kill in a matter of hours. Dr. Peter Hotez, chair of the department of microbiology at George Washington University, says epidemoliogists were expecting cholera to breakout in Haiti. And once there, it is difficult to eradicate. “If you look where cholera epidemics have occurred over the last few decades, we know, for instance, that the disease is highly endemic, meaning it’s there all of the time, in places such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. So we know when there’s flooding in Pakistan, we can expect cholera,” he said.
Cholera is also prevalent in parts of Africa and Latin America, where seasonal outbreaks often occur. About 15 years ago, researchers at Harvard University Medical School discovered that cholera bacteria get infected with viruses.
Researchers now know that these viruses interact to make the cholera bacteria deadly. “It’s the toxin that’s causing all of the pathology associated with cholera infection and it’s the toxin that we have to neutralize,” he said.
This goal becomes more important as some strains of cholera become resistant to the antibiotics normally used to treat the worst cases. Researchers say these findings will help them predict when new types of cholera-causing bacteria will appear and start infecting people.
Dan Campbell, Web
Manager
Environmental Health at USAID
1611 North Kent St., Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22209
Ph:
703-247-8722
Email: dcam...@usaid.gov
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Cholera Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/cholera-control
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