Wüstenschiff

VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS - SUDAN (NORTH DARFUR) CHILDREN
******************************************************
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: Tue 17 Jan 2012
Source: Radio Dabanga [edited]
http://www.radiodabanga.org/node/23960


Kala-azar in children at Zam Zam camp, El Fasher in North Darfur
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dozens of children at Zam Zam internally displaced persons camp near EL Fasher in North Darfur are reported to be carrying Kala-azar, a parasitic disease also known as [visceral] leishmaniasis. Health care activists at the camp said they registered 93 cases among children to the Ministry of Health in El Fasher.

The ministry dispatched an investigation team to the camp a week ago. An activist said to Radio Dabanga the team visited one nursery out of 41 nurseries in the area and found 16 cases of the disease. They also visited 2 schools out of 30 and found 120 cases.

Following the assessment visit last week [9-13 Jan 2012] the ministry said it would send a medical team to treat those children with the disease but has until now failed to do so. The activist appealed to the ministry and aid organizations to move quickly and help these children before the situation deteriorates further.

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail from HealthMap alerts
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Leishmaniasis is endemic in Sudan, and ProMED-mail has reported high prevalences in southern Sudan and eastern Sudan. It is particularly worrying that the present report concerns children, but it is not surprising. Treatment is complicated. A recent study from southern Sudan (Gorski S et al. Visceral leishmaniasis relapse in Southern Sudan (1999-2007): a retrospective study of risk factors and trends. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2010;4:e705), found that treatment with 17-day sodium stibogluconate/paromomycin (SSG/PM) combination therapy vs 30-day SSG monotherapy was associated with increased risk of relapse (OR = 2.08 (1.21, 3.58)) but reduced risk of death (OR = 0.27 (0.20, 0.37)).

Control measures include rodent control, the main reservoir, and one study found that impregnated bed nets reduced risk (Ritmeijer K et al. Evaluation of a mass distribution programme for fine-mesh impregnated bednets against visceral leishmaniasis in eastern Sudan. Trop Med Int Health. 2007;12:404-14).

HealthMap location: http://healthmap.org/r/1FED - Mod.EP]

CHOLERA, DIARRHEA AND DYSENTERY UPDATE 2012 (03): AFRICA
**************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org


Africa
[1] Cholera - Congo DR (Bukavu)
[2] Cholera - Chad
[3] Cholera - Somalia (refugee camp)

******

[1] Cholera - Congo DR (Bukavu)
Date: Mon 16 Jan 2012
Source: Press TV
http://presstv.com/detail/221382.html

A fresh cholera outbreak is threatening the lives of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The waterborne epidemic has struck South Kivu, capital of Bukavu Province, which has a population of over 4.5 million people. More than 1600 confirmed cases with at least 14 deaths have been reported since last week. Last year, nearly 19 000 cases were also reported with more than 200 deaths from another cholera outbreak.

Factors such as poor hygiene and little access to safe drinking water contribute to the outbreaks. Over the past few years, Congo has faced numerous problems such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for more than a decade.

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

******
[2] Cholera - Chad
Date: Wed 11 Jan 2012
Source: Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) [edited]
http://www.msf.org.uk/articledetail.asp ... c_20120111

MSF teams treated over 12 000 people for cholera, around 75 per cent of cases in Chad, during 2011's large-scale outbreak. More than 450 people died and 17 200 cases of the disease were reported in 2011, numbers that have not been seen since 1996.

At the height of the epidemic in August, up to 1250 new cases per week were recorded, a third of those in the capital city of N'Djamena.

Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF (Doctors Without Borders) mobilized more than 325 national and international staff at 23 health care centers in Massakory, Am Timan, Abou Deia, Mandelia, Pala, Fianga, Lere, Lai, Bongor, and N'Djamena.

"The outbreak was a continuation of the 2010 epidemic. It never really ended, therefore we witnessed two events: cases before the rainy season, and a wide geographical spread. 37 out of 61 districts were affected," says Michel-Olivier Lacharité, head of MSF programs in Chad.

In 2010, MSF treated more than 6800 cases of cholera in the country.

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

******
[3] Cholera - Somalia (refugee camp)
Date: Wed 4 Jan 2012
Source: Press TV [edited]
http://presstv.com/detail/219265.html

Cholera outbreak has claimed the lives of at least 25 more children in Somalia as the humanitarian situation continues to worsen in the famine-stricken country, Press TV reports.

According to medical sources in the Dolo Ado refugee camp near the Ethiopia-Somalia border, at least 25 children died of cholera Wednesday morning and 278 more children are on the verge of death.

Cholera is confirmed in Banadir, Bay, Mudug, and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, and the number of acute diarrhea cases has increased dramatically in the last few months.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on 28 Sep 2011 that the humanitarian situation remains "highly critical" in Somalia. According to the United Nations, drought, high food prices and fighting in Somalia have increased the number of those in need of humanitarian assistance across the Horn of Africa to 13.3 million.

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

A malaria and whooping cough outbreak in Jonglei State’s Duk County, has reportedly killed 36 people over the last month with a further 761 cases under medical care in Pajut clinic. The head of the health centre in Pajut village, Gai Tut, on Saturday told Sudan Tribune that 14 people have died of malaria and over 400 other people of various ages have been affected over the last four weeks. According to Tut, their clinics started receiving malaria and whooping cough cases in their numbers over last few days. He says some patients were lost due to lack of drugs. In the last two weeks 22 people have died and a further 361 are suffering from whooping coughs, a contagious disease caused by Bordetella Parapertussis bacteria.

Malaria and whooping coughs kill 36 in Jonglei’s Duk County
21.01.2012 - Sudan Tribune

Gruß
Birgitt

Tschad - Infektionskrankheiten
23.01.2012

Risiko für Durchfallerkrankungen landesweit. Die Zahlen von Cholera-Erkrankungen sind dramatisch angestiegen. Im gesamten Jahr 2011 gab es 17.200 Erkrankungen und mehr als 450 Todesfälle. Bereits im Jahr 2010 wurden von internationalen Hilfsorganisationen (Ärzte ohne Grenzen, Internationales Rotes Kreuz) mehr als 6.800 Patienten behandelt. 37 der 61 Distrikte des Landes sind von der Epidemie betroffen. Die meisten Menschen leben unter extrem schlechten sanitären Bedingungen, so dass Trinkwasser mit Fäkalien verunreinigt wird. Im verarmten Bongor im Süden des Landes treten außerdem viele Masern-Fälle auf. Polio, zuvor bereits ausgerottet, wurde seit 2003 aus dem benachbarten Nigeria mehrfach importiert. 2011 wurden bereits 130 Fälle gemeldet. 2010 waren es 26. Hygiene und Impfschutz (Polio, Masern) beachten. / Quelle: crm

Gruß
Birgitt

TYPHOID FEVER UPDATE 2012 (02): ZIMBABWE (HARARE)
*************************************************
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: Wed 25 Jan 2012
Source: Daily Monitor (Uganda) [edited]
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/-/6 ... 120t766/-/


A fresh typhoid outbreak in the Zimbabwean capital Harare has left 600 residents infected and 90 hospitalized in the past few days.

Authorities warned that the outbreak that had been initially confined to populated suburbs was fast spreading to the entire city after a hotel employee was hospitalized. "We have confirmed that the disease is typhoid. It has been caused by contaminated foodstuffs sold in the open," said Dr Prosper Chonzi, the city's director of health services.

"One of the confirmed cases is a person who works in a city hotel. If people eat food handled by the person, they risk contracting typhoid."

The outbreak in Harare has been worsened by collapsing sewer infrastructure with authorities saying water samples taken from the worst affected area showed that it contained human waste.

"We have attended to over 600 cases in one suburb alone. We have not recorded any deaths," he said. He said most of the victims ate fish from a lake on the outskirts of Harare, which environmentalists say has been heavily polluted by sewage flowing from the capital.

[Byline: Kitsepile Nyathi]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[It is unclear what role the hotel worker (?food handler) has had in the outbreak. If this was the case, one might have seen a secondary cluster since the incubation period is 2-3 weeks generally. The story of Typhoid Mary, Mary Mallon, can be found at http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/ ... idmary.htm. - Mod.LL]

[Harare can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Zimbabwe at http://healthmap.org/r/1r1O. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

LASSA FEVER - NIGERIA (02): (RIVERS STATE)
******************************************
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: Thu 26 Jan 2012
Source: AllAfrica.com [edited]
http://allafrica.com/stories/201201261262.html

Rivers State Records Two Cases of Lassa Fever
--------------------------------------
The Rivers Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, on Wednesday 25 Jan 2012 announced an outbreak of lassa fever in the state. He said in Port Harcourt that two persons, including a female youth corps member, had been reported dead from the disease. Parker explained that the victims were serving in the state, but travelled to their homes in Edo and Ebonyi during the Christmas celebration, where they developed symptoms of the fever and eventually died. He said the state government had launched an enlightenment campaign to sensitise the people to the need to take necessary precautions against the disease.

Parker said the government had received reports of "pockets of occurrences" of lassa fever in seven states, including Edo and Ebonyi. "What we are doing now is to alert the people to the outbreak of the disease. "The fever is caused by the urine of a species of rat and mistakenly, when such enters the food we eat, it can be contracted.

"We want the people to be environmentally conscious and report to the nearest health centre, any symptoms of the disease, while they should avoid self medication." "Being a cosmopolitan area, it is possible that rats are found in trucks that bring food to the state. People should wash their fruits and vegetables with water before consumption."

The commissioner said officers from the Ministry of Health had been sent to various communities to inform the people about the disease and educate them on what to do once the symptoms are detected in their areas. "We are not taking chances, and we want to be pro-active in our approach to this development."

He said the government had in stock available drugs to treat the fever.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[Lassa fever is a zoonotic disease and humans become infected as a result of contact with infected animals. The animal reservoir of Lassa virus is a rodent of the genus _Mastomys_, commonly known as the "multimammate rat." These rodents when infected with Lassa virus do not become ill, but they can shed the virus in their excreta.

Lassa fever occurs in all age groups and in both men and women. Persons at greatest risk are those living in rural areas where _Mastomys_ rodentsare are usually found, especially in areas of poor sanitation or crowded living conditions. Health care workers are at risk if proper barrier nursing and infection control practices are not maintained. Lassa virus may be spread between humans through direct contact with the blood, urine, faeces, or other bodily secretions of a person with Lassa fever. There is no epidemiological evidence supporting airborne spread between humans. Person-to-person transmission occurs in both community and health care settings, where the virus may be spread by contaminated medical equipment, such as re-used needles. Sexual transmission of Lassa virus has been reported. (For further information, see: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factshee ... index.html).

Rivers state lies in the extreme south of Nigeria. The states of Edo and Ebonyi where an outbreak of of Lassa fever was reported recently (see ProMED-mail reference below) lie to the north of Rivers state and are not contiguous with it. Therefore it seem likely that the two victims in Rivers state contracted infection during travel in the two more northerly states, rather than as a result of infection within Rivers state.

A map showing the location of Rivers State can be found at: http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/geography.html. - Mod.CP

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1qGF.]

IRIN hat geschrieben: ZIMBABWE: Typhoid stalks Harare
30.01.2012 - IRIN

HARARE - Over the past few weeks some 900 residents of the Zimbabwean capital Harare have been diagnosed with typhoid, and about 60 have been taken to hospital, say health authorities. "Initially, we were focusing on Dzivarasekwa high density suburb as being the source of the disease outbreak but we are now receiving patients from different high density suburbs in Harare such as Kuwadzana and Warren Park," Harare's health director, Propser Chonzi, told IRIN. There have been no confirmed fatalities from the disease, although senior health officials, who declined to be identified, told IRIN they were investigating the cause of some deaths at hospitals. Chonzi said about 20 tuberculosis (TB) patients had been relocated from the 144-bed Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital on the outskirts of Harare to another infectious diseases institution, the Wilkins Hospital in central Harare, to make way for typhoid victims. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), typhoid "usually occurs where water supplies serving large populations are contaminated by faecal matter." The disease is "characterized by the sudden onset of sustained fever, severe headache, nausea, abdominal pains, loss of appetite, constipation or sometimes diarrhoea. The illness can last for several weeks and even months," it says. Recent heavy rain in Harare is expected to compound the problem: Broken drains and water pipes have forced people to dig shallow wells, which are easily contaminated by human faeces. "I can bet my last dollar there is typhoid in Chitungwiza and Epworth [Harare commuter towns]. The hygienic levels there are not good," said Chonzi in a recent interview with the daily The Herald newspaper. Furthermore, Chonzi said street food had been tested and found to be contaminated with Salmonella typhi, the bacteria which causes typhoid. "We all need to change our habits if this [typhoid] outbreak is to be contained. We need to work on improving on cleanliness such as washing hands and avoiding dirty open air vending sites," he said. However, fish vendors, threatened with arrest by municipal police, have changed tactics and are selling their wares at night. Cholera fears Conditions which allow typhoid to flourish also provide favourable conditions for the waterborne disease cholera. Zimbabwe's year-long cholera epidemic in 2008-09 killed more than 4,000 people and infected nearly 100,000 others. "We can have cholera any time. The environment is conducive for the outbreak. We need to be proactive and play our part," Chonzi warned in the same newspaper interview. The Harare Residents Trust (HRT), an NGO campaigning for better municipal service delivery, said the spread of waterborne disease was due to the authorities' failure to collect refuse, the erratic provision of water services, and the practice of pumping raw sewage into one of the main reservoirs supplying "drinking" water to Harare. "The city must guarantee adequate clean water supplies to avoid the 2008 cholera outbreak," HRT's Precious Shumba told IRIN.

Quelle: IRIN

Gruß
Birgitt

Kongo, Demokratische Republik - Infektionskrankheiten
30.01.2012

Hohes Risiko für Darminfektionen, speziell Durchfallerkrankungen einschließlich Ruhr und Cholera landesweit. Die seit Februar 2011 herrschende Cholera-Epidemie hat nach UNO-Angaben bislang zu mindestens 22.000 Erkrankten und 584 Todesopfern geführt. In einigen Regionen des Landes konnten die Erkrankungszahlen durch intensivierte Behandlungsmaßnahmen verringert werden, aber es werden weiterhin Fälle gemeldet, u.a. auch aus der Hauptstadt Kinshasa. Alle Formen der Virushepatitis kommen im Land vor. Angesichts des desolaten Gesundheitswesens ist davon auszugehen, dass der Polio-Erreger in der DRC weiterhin zirkuliert. Im Jahr 2011 wurden insgesamt 92 Fälle gemeldet, 2010 waren es 101. Der Erreger wurde wahrscheinlich aus Angola importiert. Schlafkrankheit und Tollwut sind weit verbreitet, Risiko auch für örtliche Auftritte von Pest, vor allem im NO des Landes, für Affenpocken sowie viralen hämorrhagischen Fiebern. / Quelle: crm
______________________

Simbabwe - Typhus
30.01.2012

Pressemeldungen zufolge gibt es in der Hauptstadt Harare seit Dezember 2011 einen Typhus-Ausbruch mit inzwischen über 900 Erkrankten. Als Infektionsquelle wurden von Straßenhändler verkaufte Lebensmittel ausgemacht. Hygiene und Impfschutz beachten. / Quelle: crm

Gruß
Birgitt

TYPHOID FEVER UPDATE 2012 (03): ZIMBABWE
****************************************
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: Tue 31 Jan 2012
Source: IC News, AfricaAsia [edited]
http://www.africasia.com/services/news_ ... de8da96.81


Zimbabwe is reporting up to 50 cases of typhoid per day and has treated more than 1500 people in an outbreak blamed on poor water and sanitation facilities, the health minister said Tue 31 Jan 2012.

"By the end of December 2011, more than 1500 cases had been seen and treated," Henry Madzorera told a news conference in the capital Harare. "An average of 30 to 50 cases are reported on a daily basis."

The bacterial disease is transmitted by contaminated food and water. Since the current outbreak started last October 2011, 350 suspected cases and 16 confirmations were reported in the 1st 3 weeks of 2012. No deaths have been reported up to now.

"The progressive deterioration of public health infrastructure has seen such rare diseases like typhoid becoming more commonly encountered within our population," Madzorera said, in reference to water and sewerage pipes. "The same poor water and sanitation conditions in Harare prevail in most of our urban areas and other parts of the country."

Some suburbs go for weeks without running water as Zimbabwean municipalities battle to keep up services. Harare city authorities said they can't supply water to all the city's residents. Dams and water treatment facilities date back to before Zimbabwe's 1980 independence and cannot sustain demands from the ever-increasing population in the capital.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[A reliable source of clean water is the most appropriate way of preventing typhoid outbreaks or stemming their tide. The total number of suspected/confirmed cases is difficult to interpret from the 1st 3 paragraphs. - Mod.LL]

[A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Zimbabwe can be seen at http://healthmap.org/r/1AY4. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

Simbabwe - Typhus
02.02.2012

Bereits seit Oktober 2011 ist in Simbabwe ein Typhus-Ausbruch im Gange. Bis Ende Dezember erkrankten 1.500 Personen, in den ersten drei Januarwochen gab es weitere 350 Verdachtsfälle. Täglich werden nach Angabe des Gesundheitsministeriums zur Zeit 30 bis 50 Erkrankungsfälle pro Tag gemeldet. Auch hierfür werden als Ursache mangelhafte Trinkwasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung angegeben. Hygiene und Impfschutz beachten. / Quelle: crm

Gruß
Birgitt

Yellow fever in Ghana
03.02.2012 - WHO

On 20 December 2011, the Ministry of Health of Ghana notified WHO of a yellow fever (YF) outbreak occurring in 3 districts; Builsa and Kassena-Nankana-West in the Upper East Region and Kitampo-South in the Brong Ahafo Region located in the mid-western part of the country.

A total of three laboratory-confirmed cases, including two deaths, have been detected by yellow fever surveillance, with the clinical syndrome of fever and jaundice.

The index case, reported from the Kassena-Nankana-West district, was a 12 year-old male who had been going with his father to his farm in a forest bordering Burkina Faso. Onset of symptoms occurred on 11 October 2011 and progressively got worse until he died in Sandema Hospital on 18 October 2011. District outbreak teams investigated the affected areas but found no additional cases.

A reactive campaign has been planned starting 6 February 2012, supported by the International Coordinating Group on Yellow Fever Vaccine Provision (YF-ICG) and the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO). Over 235 000 people in the affected districts have been targeted for vaccination, with the exclusion of pregnant women and children aged under one year.

This activity will complement the two-phased YF preventive mass campaign undertaken by the country. The first phase was conducted in November 2011 and targeted a population of 5.8 million people covering 40 districts (8 regions). A YF reactive campaign was carried out in 3 more districts. The second phase, planned for this year, seeks to target 1.7 million people spanning 17 districts.
___________________________

Yellow fever in Cameroon
03.02.2012 - WHO

In December 2011, the Ministry of Health of Cameroon notified WHO of a yellow fever outbreak in the North Region of the country.

A total of 23 cases, including 7 deaths, have been reported to have occurred since October 2011 in Guider, Bibemi, Gaschiga, Lagdo, Mayo Oulo and Golombe districts. These cases were identified as part of the surveillance system, with fever and jaundice within the 14 days of onset.

At least 13 cases from six health districts were laboratory confirmed at the Institute Pasteur of Cameroon by IgM ELISA test, which was followed by the seroneutralizing test (PRNT), the most specific test for yellow fever, and by differential diagnostic for dengue and West Nile Virus conducted in the WHO regional reference laboratory for yellow fever, the Institute Pasteur of Dakar, Senegal.

WHO country office has been working with the government/health authorities in the outbreak field investigation to confirm the cases and assess the extent of the outbreak.

GAVI Alliance, UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the International Coordinating Group on Yellow Fever Vaccine Provision (YF-ICG) are supporting a reactive mass vaccination campaign which aims to cover over 1.2 million people in 8 health districts considered at high risk, namely Guider, Bibemi, Gaschiga, Lagdo, Mayo Oulo, Garoua I Garoua II, and Golombe.

The vaccination campaign began on 23 January 2012, covering these 8 health districts which were not covered in the 2009 preventive mass vaccination campaign because they have no history of yellow fever outbreak or yellow fever virus circulation.


Gruß
Birgitt

CHOLERA, DIARRHEA AND DYSENTERY UPDATE 2012 (04): AFRICA
************************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

******
Cholera - Congo DR
Date:Sat 28 Jan 2012
Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP) [edited]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... f5afe3.101


Cholera cases have soared in the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeks, the UN said on Friday, 27 Jan 2012, bringing the number of people infected in the year-long outbreak to 22 000 with 584 deaths. Aid agencies have been trying to halt the spread of the water-borne disease that has ravaged 8 of the country's 11 provinces since January 2011.

"There has been a spike in cases" since mid-December 2011, with figures on the rise in the capital Kinshasa in particular, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. Cholera, a contagious intestinal infection, has taken its heaviest toll on eastern regions however, with a quarter of all cases reported in Sud-Kivu province.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

HANTAVIRUS UPDATE 2012 - AFRICA: COTE D'IVOIRE
**********************************************
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: 26 Jan 2012
Source: Journal of Virology 9(34): 12 pp. [edited]
http://www.virologyj.com/content/pdf/1743-422X-9-34.pdf


[Although ProMED-mail does not frequently post published journal reports, information on non-rodent hantaviruses from Africa are rare and worth sharing with ProMED subscribers. - Mod.TY]

L Sumibcay, B Kadjo, SH Gu, HJ Kang, BK Lim, JA Cook, JW Song, R Yanagihara. Divergent lineage of a novel hantavirus in the banana pipistrelle (_Neoromicia nanus_) in Cote d'Ivoire.

Abstract
Recently identified hantaviruses harbored by shrews and moles (order Soricomorpha) suggest that other mammals having shared ancestry may serve as reservoirs. To investigate this possibility, archival tissues from 213 insectivorous bats (order Chiroptera) were analyzed for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Following numerous failed attempts, hantavirus RNA was detected in ethanol-fixed liver tissue from 2 banana pipistrelles (_Neoromicia nanus_), captured near Mouyassue village in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, in June 2011.

Phylogenetic analysis of partial L-segment sequences using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods revealed that the newfound hantavirus, designated Mouyassue virus (MOUV), was highly divergent and basal to all other rodent- and soricomorph-borne hantaviruses, except for Nova virus in the European common mole (_Talpa europaea_). Full genome sequencing of MOUV and further surveys of other bat species for hantaviruses, now underway, will provide critical insights into the evolution and diversification of hantaviruses.

--
Communicated by
ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>

[One hopes that this interesting paper will lead to a search for additional hantaviruses in bats around the world and a more extensive study of this hantavirus in the banana pipistrelle and other bats in the Cote d'Ivoire and other West African countries, as well as evidence for infection by this virus in humans and other vertebrates.

Images of the bats, a phylogenetic tree of the virus, and a map of the study area in Cote d'Ivoire can be accessed at the above URL. - Mod.TY

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1CnS.]

TYPHOID FEVER UPDATE 2012 (04): ZAMBIA
**************************************
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: Sun 5 Feb 2012
Source: Daily Mail [edited]
http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/index.php/p ... s-recorded


Zambia has recorded 4396 cases of typhoid since it broke out 3 months ago, with 9 deaths. Ministry of Health acting spokesperson Crispin Moyo said the country has experienced sporadic outbreaks of the waterborne disease in Kalabo, Mufurila, Nakonde and Lusaka.

Dr Moyo said in a statement yesterday, 4 Feb 2012, 13 cases are still undergoing treatment in Mufurila and 14 at Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital in Lusaka. He said the disease is an enteric fever caused by a bacterium called _Salmonella [enterica_] serotype Typhi and can be life-threatening.

[Byline: Christine Chisha]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail from HealthMap Alerts
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Typhoid fever is a classical systemic infection caused by the typhoid bacillus, _Salmonella enterica_ seroTYPE Typhi (commonly referred to as _S._ typhi), the most common cause of enteric fever, which also includes paratyphoid fever caused by _S. paratyphi_ A, B and C. These pathogens only infect humans. The disease is transmitted by ingestion of food, including dairy products, or water contaminated by excreta from patients or chronic carriers or handled by infected persons. Highest incidence usually occurs where water supplies serving large populations are contaminated by fecal matter, as existed at the end of the 19th century in many large cities in the USA and western Europe, when the disease was quite endemic in those areas. - Mod.LL]

[For the HealthMap/ProMED map of Zambia, see http://healthmap.org/r/1Dk_. - Mod.MPP]

TYPHOID FEVER UPDATE 2012 (05): ZIMBABWE
***********************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

******

Zimbabwe - Harare

Date: Sat 11 Feb 2012
Source: Eyewitness News [edited]
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/Story.aspx?Id=82452

The Harare Magistrates Court has been shut down after 5 magistrates and more than 20 other court officials became ill with suspected typhoid. Zimbabwe has been battling an outbreak of the disease since November 2011, but until now infections were confined to the western suburbs. This is bad news for Harare as it means typhoid has now hit the central business district.

The authorities had to shut down the court house as it had no running water. The court is near to the head office of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the main city library.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[This is the 1st report of typhoid in Harare proper, a possible harbinger of much more typhoid to come. - Mod. LL]

[For the HealthMap/ProMED map of Harare, Zimbabwe, see http://healthmap.org/r/1sH0. - Mod.MPP]