African reports should pick up

Good point Joe.  I don't usually go looking for problems on the African continent.  It's a frightening prospect to contemplate and I have a hard enough time with depression. 

So if you don't mind, I will leave this investigation to you and anyone else who would like to track its.

Yeah, I know, I am being a ostridge, but everyone has their limit.

DarlMan wrote: Something maybe like this??? Angolan Health minister, Sebastião Veloso, said Friday in Kuito, central Bie province, that the outbreak of a strange disease that in the last ten days killed two people in the district of Nharea, is under control Full Story: http://www.andnetwork.com/app?service=direct/1/Home/$StorySu mmary$0.$DirectLink$2&sp=l13507

When we see a whole lot of stories like that then we can start sounding an alarm.  Right now we just stand back and observe and wait for a trend.

There you go:

www.promedmail.org:

Archive Number	20060121.0207
Published Date	21-JAN-2006
Subject	PRO/EDR> Meningococcal disease - Uganda (Nakapiripirit, Moroto)

MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE - UGANDA (NAKAPIRIPIRIT, MOROTO)
******************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006
From: Ambrose Talisuna <atalisuna@hotmail.com>


The Uganda Ministry of Health would like to declare an outbreak of epidemic 
meningococcal meningitis in 2 districts of Nakapiripirit and Moroto. As of 
this morning, 20 Jan 2006, 142 cases and 11 deaths had been reported in 
Nakapiripirit district and 6 cases with no deaths in Moroto district.

Preliminary lab diagnosis using a rapid test suggests serogroup A. A joint 
WHO/UNICEF/MSF (Swiss) team has been sent to the area to assist with 
control. Any technical, logistical (especially vaccines), and financial 
assistance would be appreciated.

-- 
Dr Ambrose Talisuna
Assistant Commissioner for Epidemiology and Surveillance
Ugandan Ministry of Health, Kampala
<atalisuna@hotmail.com>

[ProMED-mail thanks Dr Talisuna for reporting this. Nakapiripirit and 
Moroto districts border each other in north eastern Uganda. They comprise 
part of the border between Uganda and Kenya. - Mod

Swine Fever Kills 4,000 Pigs in Adjumani
The Monitor (Kampala)
January 31, 2006
Posted to the web January 31, 2006

The African swine fever that broke out in Adjumani district recently has claimed over 4,000 pigs in the area

Adjumani District Veterinary Officer, Dr Emmanuel Zole, told journalists on Thursday that the disease would continue to kill pigs unless farmers took measures to guard against it.

Zole blamed farmers for the rapid spread of the disease, saying they were feasting on the dead pigs instead of reporting such cases to the veterinary department. He appealed to them to bury or burn all the dead pigs.

Meanwhile, several carcasses of pigs were on Sunday buried in six mass graves at Molupkoda near the district headquarters in Adjumani town.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200601310308.html

Remember, in China, after Qinghai Lakes, it spread to the pigs. China tried to cover it up by claiming it was Strep Suis, but we knew what was actually happening.   In this case in Africa, it may be Swine flu, as reported.

Thanks for the info Joe. Sometime back I asked you about seeing a large number of pigs dieing. Is this the largest number of pigs so far? 

 

Joe, read the yellow highlight below in this article. notice the reference to Sierra Leone. Are they telling people not to eat uncooked chicken ever and especially Sierra Leone? Rumor or fact  of the virus there?

The article is written kinda comical/educational .

Bird Flu: Eat Chicken And Say Your Last Prayer

OPINION
February 6, 2006
Posted to the web February 6, 2006

Abubakarr Talib Jallow
Freetown

Go to Salad Ground (Garrison Street); pick up a piece of imported chicken and a few spices; cook them for a few minutes but with less heat and consume. Your post-mortem result may tell of a strange (well in Sierra Leone) disease popularly know as Bird Flu; the virulent H5N1 form of the flu or strain of avian influenza, which is essentially a disease of birds.

This is not to scare you; imported chickens are no longer safe to eat in a hurry - certain precautions are needed in the handling, processing of chickens before consumption. It is for instance advised that a chicken should be cooked above 90 degrees C. And the days when people eat raw flesh are over because it has been proven that this increases the chances of contracting deadly viruses.

The Bird Flu has certainly changed the way man relates to birds. In most of the Africa and Sierra Leone particularly, the situation is still very much the same; fowls sleep in many houses, they are covered in some corners of the parlor at nights and are released in the mornings; birds of various kinds are hunted, killed, roasted for one or two minutes and eaten by mostly adolescents; feathers from mainly cocks are plunged off indiscriminately and used as cotton-bud too clean ears; cocks are killed and dumped at main junctions as sacrifices to some "mystic powers" and so on and on. The daily contacts with birds are very rustic (and natural too). It is also a source of livelihood and many families have been selling fowl to buy essential school materials for their kids for many many years. How can you therefore tell such people that birds including chicken may be even more dangerous than mosquitoes?

Mosquito causes malaria and malaria kills more than one million people every year, and infects 500 million worldwide. People don't eat mosquitoes, people don't sell mosquitoes, people don't pet mosquitoes; people have used many methods to fight mosquitoes and yet malaria is still a bigger killer than HIVS/AIDS for the moment.

The problem of rolling back malaria or let's say fight against the mosquitoes that causes malaria is only a pointer to the cumbersome fight against the avian influenza or bird flu. And I personally think that in places like Sierra Leone, we should not be carried away by the threat of bird flu to the extent that we forget malaria which is one of Sierra Leone's greatest enemies- don't forget this was the reason why the country was the White Man's Grave.

This said; we should be mindful and take necessary precautions to avoid being infected by this deadly disease of birds. Luckily, Sierra Leone and West Africa generally is not on the way of migratory birds from Asia. Eastern Africa- Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, down to South Africa, are on the migratory path of wild birds from Asia and Europe that are suspected to carry the virus.

However, Sierra Leone has many backyard or household poultries, and our market have been saturated with imported chicken both of which put the country at risk of the avian flu.

The ministry of health told parliament recently that it was bracing itself for the bird flu but it takes more than words to show we are preparing. Uganda, like other countries, has imposed a ban on importation of poultry products as a preventive measure to minimise the spread of the flu into the population of local poultry. In Kenya, a Government monitoring group has been formed and has already started educating people about the risks, especially the small-holder rural farmer who keeps two to four chickens and shares shelter with them. In Ethiopia since last December dead migratory birds suspected of having succumbed to the virus are being tested. These are examples of actions for a government to claim justifiably it is preparing itself for bird flu.

It would be good for instance to know if the ministry of health in Sierra Leone has the capacity to test for the avian flu from dead birds. That is a good way to start if only to ensure that indeed at the moment it is non-existent. The ministry and vetinary department especially should request people to report sick or dead birds to enable them test for the prevalence or not of the disease. Then a monitoring group with adequate funding and capacity to undertake surveillances (especially on wild birds) is essential and should not just be a one-time unit with a short duration but should exist for as long as the threat is. Thirdly, to ensure chickens from countries where the disease has been reported do not find their way to Sierra Leone is not too much for the government to do, but since the government cannot fed the people with good food; it may not mind that cheap and junk stuff such as imported chicken from everywhere continues to enter the country. A government that has its people at heart will ban the importation of chicken from countries with bird flu and the customs department will effect it. Will the SLPP do that?

The trade unions mainly Labour Congress, Traders Associations, journalists organisation, student unions and human rights groups have a stake in this; how does the government engage them into a preventive response strategy is a showcase of its preparedness to disaster prevention. They have to be engaged at the countryside more especially where people are very close to birds and not just in Freetown as usual.

Massive education on the basics on the handling and processing of bird food is highly recommended. The British Food Standards Agency has confirmed that properly cooked chicken poses no risk to human beings.

This is true for meat products be they beef, chicken, mutton or pork- they have to be well cooked to kill potentially harmful bacteria. If this is done; then you may not need to say your last prayer before eating chicken.

The bird flu epidemic may never be, it may never reach Sierra Leone but it would be fool-hardy not to be fully prepared for it.

Relevant Links West Africa Sierra Leone Food, Agriculture and Rural Issues Health and Medicine

Chicken is safe to eat, but please take care.

Writer is an ex-Editor of Concord Times but now works with an international humanitarian agency.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200602060816.html

Nigeria is reporting a highly pathogenic H5N1 confirmed in one of the northern provinces. This is Africa's first reported case of BF among poultry. 

At least 19 other countries have reported outbreaks of
the virus in birds, which can sicken people who have contact with them.
Human infection raises the risk that the virus may change into a form
easily spread among people and trigger a pandemic.

Africa, already grappling with an AIDS epidemic and famine, may prove
the weakest link in a global effort to stem bird flu, scientists and
government officials said at a conference in Beijing last month.

Millions of birds flock to the Great Rift Valley, running 8,700 kilometers
(7,200 miles) from Syria to Mozambique, between July and October on
their way from northern Asia to South Africa.


* Africa should be a human all you can eat buffet in
    those with AIDS.The disease as a result may hold some surprizes
    because of this.
    My 2-cents

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=10000087&sid=aUT40_mbW2fY&refer=top_world_news

Edited by Rick

Throughout Asia wherever H5N1 (Sichuan Sheet) has traveled, there have been large increases of meningitis / meningococcemia illness with many fatalities.

It happened in India before Qinghai Lakes. It happened in China after Qinghai Lakes. Then there were reports in Siberian Russia and Kazakhstan and many points west (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,) as Bird Flu traveled west towards Turkey and Europe.

Expect more of the same as it travels into Africa and more European countries. They don't always test for H5N1, but the outbreaks are a reality. ABBF always applies.

That is not to say that Meningitis is Bird Flu.  It is not.  Meningitis is actually several diseases, some bacterial and some viral.  The fact remains that it has been noticed that where birds with bird flu go, there are meningitis outbreaks.  There appears to be some sort of relationship, but we do not know what it is.

For certain a few Bird flu cases have been labeled as Meningitis.  Usually they are just called pneumonia and the deaths tabulated as such as long as they are not testing for H5N1.