H5N1

Pakistan: Anti-dengue campaign: Half-sleeve shirts, shorts banned in schools, colleges

Via the Daily Times: Anti-dengue campaign : Half-sleeve shirts, shorts banned in schools, colleges. Excerpt:

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif has imposed a ban on wearing of half-sleeve shirts and shorts in educational institutions as a precautionary measure against dengue. 

At least 19 dengue cases have been confirmed in Punjab, while 1,127 suspected cases have been reported. According to a report by the Punjab Health Department, out of the 1,127 cases, 81 have a high probability of being confirmed as positive. 

Addressing a meeting of provincial anti-dengue committee on Thursday, the CM said that Anti-Dengue Day would be enthusiastically observed throughout Punjab on September 2. He said that all government offices, departments and institutions would remain open that day. 

He warned that any laxity or negligence in the ongoing campaign against dengue would not be tolerated and stern action would be taken against those found guilty. 

The CM constituted a six-member steering committee comprising MPAs to ensure observance of Anti-Dengue Day and said that the said committee would monitor all arrangements for the day. 

He directed that seminars, walks and workshops should be held on the day while students should especially be motivated to participate in this national cause. 

He also directed that committees, consisting of parents, should be constituted to monitor dengue arrangements at schools and colleges while elected representatives and government officers must also step into the field along with the public. 

Shahbaz said that coordinated and collective efforts were necessary for dengue’s elimination, and directed all government and private institutions to involve their respective focal persons in the anti-dengue campaign. Private schools and hospitals should also be asked to maintain cleanliness and make foolproof anti-dengue arrangements, he added. 

The CM further directed that additional instruments should be installed for shredding of old tyres in a proper manner, while arrangements should also be made for cleaning scrap houses. He gave direction for immediate fogging and fumigation at places that were likely to serve as breeding grounds for dengue mosquito.

Haiti: 3 deaths from cholera after the passage of Isaac

Via Haiti New 509: Haiti - Cholera: 3 deaths from cholera after the passage of Isaac.The report, slightly edited from a Google translation: 

3 people have died of cholera after the passage of Isaac in Haiti, according to what is on Wednesday the program coordinator of the fight against cholera Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) Dr. Donald François. 

However, only one case has been verified and the other 2 have been reported to MSPP pending confirmation. The program coordinator of the fight against cholera MSPP indicated that measures had been taken to prevent cholera spread at the time of passage of the storm Isaac crossed Haiti. 

"The epidemic is not necessarily related to the hurricane, but the storm can cause conditions that foster the development of the epidemic," said Dr. François. 

Cholera cases are much more common in the departments of South and Southeast, said Dr. François.

WHO: Cholera in Sierra Leone - update

WHO has published Cholera in Sierra Leone - update.

30 AUGUST 2012 - Since the beginning of the year, Sierra Leone has recorded 13,934 cases of cholera, with 232 deaths (Case Fatality Rate of 1.7). 

The rate of new cases has accelerated rapidly since the beginning of August. Eleven of the country’s 13 districts are now registering cases with Western Area and Port Loko being the most affected. The most recently affected district is Kenema district. 

The President of Sierra Leone has declared the escalating cholera epidemic a “humanitarian crisis”. Consequently, a high-level Presidential Cholera Task Force has been established to oversee coordination, mobilize resources and guide response. 

A multi-sectoral approach to the response has been adopted involving the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), as well as other line ministries such as finance information and communication, and local government, together with partners and stakeholders. 

A Cholera Control and Command Centre (C4) has been established at the WHO Country Office in Freetown to better coordinate all the response activities to the cholera outbreak. This approach was previously used and proved effective in the response to the Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe in 2008-2009. 

The first C4 meeting took place on 28 August 2012 and will subsequently be held daily. The C4 comprises all the technical sub-committees dealing with surveillance, case management, water and sanitation, logistics and social mobilization. 

The MOHS, in partnership with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), UNICEF, WHO, and other partners, is implementing the following prevention and control activities: epidemiological investigation, surveillance, case management at established cholera treatment centres, water and sanitation control measures, social mobilization and community education. 

WHO continues to support Sierra Leone in the areas of epidemiology, social mobilization, surveillance and has mobilized experts from the AFRO Regional Office (including Inter-country Support team) and WHO headquarters. 

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) has provided experienced case management and laboratory expertise from the International Center for Diahorrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) who have long-standing experience in responding to cholera internationally. 

WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Sierra Leone.

WHO: Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo - update

WHO has published Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo - update. Excerpt:

30 AUGUST 2012 - The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to work with partners to control the outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. As of 28 August 2012, a total of 24 (6 probable, 6 confirmed and 12 suspected) cases and 11 deaths had been reported from Province Orientale. 

The reported cases and deaths occurred in 3 health zones as follows: 17 cases and 9 deaths in Isiro; 6 cases and 2 deaths in Viadana; 1 case and 0 death in Dungu. The fatal cases in Isiro include three health-care workers. All alerts have been investigated and so far there has been no Ebola suspected or confirmed case reported from outside Province Orientale. 

Initial samples were tested by Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe, Uganda, and three samples taken from two patients were confirmed for Ebola virus (Ebola subtype Bundibugyo). 

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has established a field laboratory in Isiro to support case management and epidemiological investigations. A National Task Force convened by the Congolese Ministry of Health is working with several partners including WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and CDC to control the outbreak. 

A joint MoH, WHO and MSF emergency response team is in the field to conduct a detailed epidemiological investigation and case management. WHO has deployed epidemiologists and logisticians from AFRO regional office (including the Inter-country Support team) and WHO headquarters to support the MoH and is working closely with partners in the areas of coordination, surveillance, epidemiology, logistics for outbreak, public information and social mobilization. 

WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) has deployed an anthropologist from the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), France to assist with a clearer understanding of the social and anthropological issues among the affected population that could impact the on-going response efforts. 

Control activities that are being carried out include active case finding and contact tracing, enhanced surveillance, case management, public information and social mobilization and reinforcing infection control practices. 

WHO does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Democratic Republic of Congo. 

There is currently no indication that this Ebola outbreak is related to the recent Ebola outbreak in Uganda occurring in Kibaale district.

Haiti: 7,526 cholera deaths as of August 27

MSPP has posted one more day's worth of cholera statistics on its Documentation page, this one for August 27. As before, several departments didn't report on this day, and the numbers aren't always consistent, but here they are:

Cases: 94

Hospitalizations: 50

Deaths: 2

Total deaths since October 2010: 7,526 (6 more than reported on August 26)

Total cases since October 2010: 588,268 (487 more than reported on August 26)

Canada: West Nile cases in Toronto at 10-year high

Via CBC News: West Nile cases in Toronto at 10-year high. Excerpt:

Toronto has the highest number of reported human West Nile Virus cases in a decade, public health officials say. 

As of today, the city has 46 human cases this summer, Toronto Public Health said. 

The city expects more cases in the coming weeks. 

In comparison, in 2002, the city had 163 reported cases. The following year there were 44 cases. Some years there has been none. 

"While most people infected with West Nile Virus will recover, the virus can have serious health impacts — especially for seniors and those with compromised immune systems," said Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health. 

"I urge everyone to take precautions to avoid being infected with the virus," he added in a release. 

The city is setting mosquito traps for weekly testing and larviciding catch basins to reduce mosquito populations.

India: 517 dengue cases, two deaths in Bengal

Via ZeeNews.com: 517 dengue cases, two deaths in Bengal. Excerpt:

Kolkata: The number of confirmed dengue cases in West Bengal has gone up to 517, of which two patients including a nine-year-old girl have died, the state health department said Thursday. 

"Two people have died of dengue and the total number of cases is 517. In Kolkata alone, there are 323 cases of dengue," said a health department statement. 

Nine-year old Sreeja Das was the first dengue victim in the state. 

The epidemic first struck in the second week of August. 

Several people in and around Kolkata have been hospitalised with symptoms similar to dengue. 

The state government will launch an intense awareness campaign throughout the disease-prone areas and train 142 medical officers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to tackle the menace, as most of the confirmed cases are reported in the city.

Japan: First nuclear material is out of Fukushima

Via Nature News Blog: First nuclear material is out of Fukushima. Excerpt:

Investigations continue at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, and earlier this week the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) released photos of the first nuclear material that they’ve actually managed to get out of one of the reactors. 

As a quick recap, the unit 4 reactor was shut down when a magnitude 9 earthquake and 14m tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi plant on 11 March 2011. It was actually in the middle of refuelling when the emergency struck, and as a result, its old fuel was in a pool atop the reactor, along with a fresh batch. Since the accident, many people have worried that the fuel in unit 4 constitutes a serious safety risk, particularly if there’s another earthquake. 

All summer long, Tepco’s been busy demolishing the top of the unit 4 reactor to try and get at the fuel (the reactor was damaged in a fire that may have started as a result of the meltdown at unit 3). In July, the successfully extracted a single fuel assembly, and this week, they unveiled photos of the assembly under inspection. 

An assembly is basically a lot of long little straws filled with pellets of uranium fuel. This particular one is filled with fresh fuel, so it’s not particularly radioactive (which is why everyone is standing around it). This one also does not appeared to be damaged at all, which is pretty remarkable considering what it’s been through. 

There is a little corrosion on the rods, but that could be precipitated iron from the water used to cool the pool, according to Margaret Harding, a nuclear engineer based in Wilmington, North Carolina. There is some debris from the fires and explosions in the bottom of the pool as well.

Sierra Leone cholera outbreak worsens as rainy season peaks

Via Times LIVE.co.za, a Sapa-AFP report: Sierra Leone cholera outbreak worsens as rainy season peaks. Excerpt:

Gripped by its worst cholera outbreak in nearly 15 years, which has already left 229 dead, Sierra Leone is likely to see cases triple in the next month as the rainy season hits its peak, estimates show. 

In Freetown, the densely populated seaside capital, makeshift houses without toilets or running water crowd the muddy green hills surrounding the city. Slums cluster on the seafront, where rubbish chokes streams and children play in dirty water. 

With the heavy rains, which one NGO worker described as "turning a bucket upside down", and poor hygiene and living conditions, cholera has spread rapidly, leaving thousands stricken with vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps. 

The outbreak has prompted the government to declare a national emergency. 

Across the country some 13,300 people have so far been infected by the water-borne disease, and with September typically bringing the heaviest rains, cases are expected to hit 32,000, according to the government and the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

At 34 Military Hospital in the west of the city, Doctors Without Borders is manning one of several dedicated cholera treatment centres set up around the capital. 

One doctor there reported "a streaming procession of patients". 

Relatives mill around the treatment centre, their faces drawn as they wait for news of their loved ones, while nurses hook new patients up to drips and porters scrub the floor to get rid of the stench. 

"I was brought here rather dehydrated and I had given up hope that I would live," murmured Alimatu Turay, lying listlessly on a stretcher, her eyes half-open. 

"I had eaten two pieces of roast meat for breakfast and after about an hour, I could hardly control my vomiting and bowel movements. Now I am feeling better, although still delirious, but I think I have passed the danger point," she said. 

Unclean street food is a vector for the disease, and health inspectors are moving around the capital ordering food vendors to cover their wares, but this has not prevented a drop in business, an AFP correspondent reported.

Canada: Quebec calls for coroner's inquest into legionnaires' disease deaths

Via The Montréal Gazette: Quebec calls for coroner's inquest into legionnaires' disease deaths. Excerpt:

MONTREAL - As the widow of one victim of the legionnaires’ disease outbreak spoke out against the provincial government Thursday – accusing authorities of “criminal negligence” – Public Security Minister Robert Dutil announced that he has called for a coroner’s inquiry to investigate the crisis. 

“I have asked the chief coroner to hold a public inquiry into the sad events of the last few weeks,” Dutil said. “Out of respect for those who have died and their families, the coroner (Dr. Louise Nolet) must shed light on those events.” 

Dutil made those remarks moments before Solange Allen and her lawyer spoke to reporters outside the Quebec City courthouse. 

Allen’s husband, Claude Desjardins, died of legionnaires’ disease on Aug. 19. His was the fourth declared death from the outbreak that has killed nine people and infected 132 others in the provincial capital. 

Allen recounted how her husband first felt flu-like symptoms on Aug. 14, but was administered antibiotics only four days later in a hospital. He died the following day. 

“When we first went to see our doctor, no one told us that my husband might have legionnaires’ disease,” she said. “Even though there was an outbreak and three people had already died, no one from the Health Department informed us. The Health Department should have sent letters to people’s homes advising us of this situation. This wasn’t done. 

“Had we known of the outbreak at the time, and had my husband been given antibiotics immediately, he might be alive today. 

“This is very much a case of criminal negligence,” Allen added. 

The Health Department did issue a news release about the outbreak on July 31. But it did not send notices to homeowners, and authorities waited until the third week of August to hold daily news conferences on the outbreak.