Congo - Ebola - 183 deaths + 187 suspected cases

[Treyfish]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Mweka : epidemic about ague d?origine stranger , according him minister home any health Kasa? Western | 02 September 2007 at 111314:: Him minister any health , Triumphant Makwenge Kaput , declare as the people ill present any maux about head , any ague as well as any aches abdominal. He description equally a number of demise without condition the number , ascertains radiookapi.net According him minister home any health , Triumphant Makwenge Kaput l??quipe provincial has decrying him freak. ?. Effectively , the people ill pr?sentaient any maux about head , any ague , any aches abdominal and any saddle liquid. Her l??quipe provincial ] has d?nombr? a number of case and any demise. A good deal of case answering machine at the antibiotics customary. At the desk any 1er connection about l??quipe provincial , at the saw any board clinical and any level about l?talit? thanksggiving gyrate about 20%, the guess diagnosis ourselves do expect fairly to a gastroent?rite d?origine bacterial. Him diagnosis about laboratory am essential for arbitrate about her cause of this freak. Pending , we are putting all at ?uvre for a point at charge accurately any case. ? For avoid her propagation , him department any health advises d'observer strictly the rules elementary d'hygi?ne. HAS know , wash the hand before about eat , wash the hand after s'?tre soulag? and at last drink about water mash the original..
Mweka : ?pid?mie de fi?vre d?origine inconnue, selon le ministre national de la sant?

Kasa? Occidental | 02 Septembre 2007 ? 11:13:14

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Le ministre de la sant?, Victor Makwenge Kaput, indique que les personnes malades pr?sentent des maux de t?te, de la fi?vre ainsi que des douleurs abdominales. Il signale ?galement un certain nombre de d?c?s sans d?terminer le nombre, constate radiookapi.net
Selon le ministre national de la sant?, Victor Makwenge Kaput, l??quipe provinciale a d?crit le ph?nom?ne. ? . En effet, les personnes malades pr?sentaient des maux de t?te, de la fi?vre, des douleurs abdominales et des selles liquides. Elle [l??quipe provinciale] a d?nombr? un certain nombre de cas et des d?c?s. Beaucoup de cas r?pondent aux antibiotiques usuels. A la r?ception du 1er rapport de l??quipe provinciale, au vu du tableau clinique et du niveau de l?talit? qui tourne autour de 20%, les hypoth?ses diagnostics nous font penser plut?t ? une gastroent?rite d?origine bact?rienne. Le diagnostic de laboratoire est essentiel pour trancher sur la cause de ce ph?nom?ne. En attendant, nous mettons tout en ?uvre pour une prise en charge correcte des cas. ?

Pour ?viter la propagation, le minist?re de la sant? recommande d'observer strictement les r?gles ?l?mentaires d'hygi?ne. A savoir, se laver les mains avant de manger, se laver les mains apr?s s'?tre soulag? et enfin boire de l'eau bouillie.
Par Redacteur Web http://www.radiookapi.net/index.php?...k=0&r=all&sc=0

[hawkeye]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Unknown disease strikes the Congo
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:22:01
Source: Agencies
Medical experts from the UN and WHO are investigating the outbreak of an unknown illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to the report published by WHO, the definite number of affected cases or deaths are still unclear, although it was stated that more than half of the cases are children aged 10 years and younger.

The experts say the unknown disease is characterized by fever, headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting.

WHO experts and the Congolese government have started investigations from the central part of the country where the outbreak began.

PKH/HGH

[Niko]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Still not certain there are two separate diseases. I spent over an hour trying to map the 4 villages (Kampungu, Makonono, Kaluamba and Mombo). I found all of them in Kasai Occidental although the names came up a little different in Google and Expedia. The maps I have viewed show these areas are a bit spread out. (unlike the proximity of little hamlets/villages in Garut, Indo, for instance)

• Some articles say people began dying 2 weeks ago, other say much longer.

• Clinical symptoms vary with the reports as well. Some report hemorrhagic symptoms, others don't. The symptoms do not rule out H5N1. No reports have mentioned H5N1.

• Some say 3 children out of 103 people, some say 50&#37; children.

• The deaths of chickens and pigs are mentioned in more than one report.

[Sally Furniss]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Viral haemorrhagic fever fact sheet

http://www.aodgp.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-communic-factsheets-vhf.htm

Viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) is a highly infectious, and often fatal, disease. This fact sheet covers: background; occurrence; vaccination; treatment; avoidance; quarantine measures.

Background
Viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are a group of highly infectious, and often fatal, diseases caused by several different viruses. Illness is characterised by the sudden onset of fever, malaise, headache, sore throat, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea, skin rash, and haemorrhage. The fatality rate varies depending on the particular virus involved but can be as high as 90 per cent.

The viruses are usually transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks and animals (including monkeys) and then the infection is transmitted between humans through contact with body fluids (e.g., blood, semen) and possibly through droplets placed in the air by coughing or sneezing.

Occurrence, transmission and symptoms
Four viral haemorrhagic fevers, Ebola, Marburg, Crimean-Congo and Lassa, are quarantinable diseases in Australia. These diseases are caused by viruses which rapidly produce life threatening illness due to systemic blood loss.

Ebola and Marburg virus infection occurs in Central and East Africa. It is not known how humans are initially infected in the environment. However, once a human is infected, the virus is easily spread between persons via body fluids during the haemorrhagic stages of the illness. Aerosol transmission has not been reported in the hospital environment.

The incubation period for Ebola virus is two to twenty-one days and for Marburg virus it is three to nine days. The symptoms of infection are the sudden onset of fever, malaise, headache and muscle pain followed by sore throat, vomiting and diarrhoea, abdominal pain, jaundice, oedema and bleeding. The death rate for Ebola infection ranges between 50 and 90 per cent and for Marburg infection is between 20 and 30 per cent.

Lassa virus infection occurs in Western Africa between Nigeria and Senegal through contact with wild rodents. The disease is most common during the dry season between January and April. Transmission between humans occurs through infected body fluids. The risk of aerosol transmission between humans is considered to be very low. The incubation period is between six to twenty-one days.

The symptoms of infection are fever, malaise, muscle pain, cough, headache, conjunctivitis, sore throat, chest and abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea, and bleeding. The death rate is about 15 per cent.

Crimean-Congo virus infection can occur in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central Asia, north-west China, India and Africa. The virus is maintained in many domestic and wild animals and is transmitted to humans primarily by the bite of an infected tick. Transmission between humans occurs by infected body fluids. The disease is considered to be highly infectious in a hospital setting.

The incubation period is usually between one and three days but may be as long as 12 days. The symptoms of infection are the sudden onset of fever, malaise, headache, severe pain in limbs, muscle pain, sore throat, shock, vomiting, abdominal pain, rash and bleeding. The death rate varies from 2 to 50 per cent.

Vaccination
No vaccine is available for any VHF.

Treatment
Antiviral drugs may be effective in some cases. Otherwise, only symptomatic treatment can be provided. Early diagnosis and intensive supportive therapy may be life saving.

Avoidance
Travellers should avoid contact with animals in areas where VHFs are known to occur and avoid contact with any person suspected of being infected with a VHF.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

machinetranslation

An epidemic close to the fever of Ebola shakes Mweka


La Prosp?rit? (Kinshasa)


CURRENT EVENTS
September 3, 2007
Published on the Web on September 4, 2007

By Peter Tshibangu
Kinshasa

West. It presents clinical signs near to the fever known as of Ebola. There are deaths and the fashion of contamination is not revealed yet by the experts that the Minister for health dispatched on the ground. However, of the provisions of isolation of the patients are taken.

There is a few days the medical department epidemiologic monitoring of the province noted an abnormally raised number of deaths in the medical zone of Luamba, territory of Mweka in the Kasa?-Westerner.


At once informed, the Minister for health, Victor Makwenge Kaput, dispatched a team of contingency before asking the provincial medical team of epidemiologic service to carry out a complete examination on this situation.

The deployed doctors with Luamba described some symptoms: the sick person makes headaches, fever, of pain abdominal and loss of liquid and blood (?). The doctors counted certain numbers of case and deaths among the people touched by this epidemic. Many reacto to residual antibiotics.

In front of the width of this fever which prevails cruelly, a team made up biologists of the University Private clinics of Kinshasa and INERB received mandate to fly to the help of the provincial team and to try to pose the diagnoses. To date, the taking away made on the sick people is spirit to be examined with the INERB and the results of the analyses will be soon known.

The specialists work (tears off feet) on the data of the various sources to determine the exact origin of this epizooty. This situation, according to the Minister for health, makes partly that many patients was not consulted in the Center health. Within sight of clinical picture which turns around 20%, the assumptions of the diagnoses posed turn around gastro-intestinal disease of bacterial origin.

The diagnosis of the laboratory is essential to find on the cause of this phenomenon, confirmed the minister in a chain of the periphery collected in Kinshasa.

While waiting for the establishment of the relations between various cases to find the probable source of contamination and of the assumption of responsibility for the remainder of the cases, the medical department is informed to isolate the patients to decrease the contamination.

To avoid the propagation of the disease in question, it is advised, as in the case of Ebola, to observe the elementary elements of hygiene to knowing: to wash the hands before eating, washing the hands after being to relieve and drink water pulp. The government is concerned with situation and put all urgent provisions to relieve the population disaster victim.

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200709041240.html

[Niko]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

This article does not mention any "blood" or haemorrhagic symptoms in this current outbreak

<table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr><td class="contentheading" width="100&#37;"> Unidentified disease kills 103 persons in DR Congo </td> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- document.write('<td align="right" width="100%" class="buttonheading">'); document.write(''); document.write(''); document.write(''); document.write('</td>'); //--> </script><td class="buttonheading" align="right" width="100%"></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <script language="javascript">
Kinshasa, DR Congo - A disease still unidentified has killed 103 people since 8 June in Western Kassa&#239; province (DR Congo), according to a WHO study quoted Tuesday by the Congolese Press Agency (ACP).
According to the Congolese Health Minister, Victor Makwenge Kaput, people suffering from the disease show signs of headache, fever as well as abdominal pains.
They die of dehydration following severe diarrhoea and high fever.
Specialists liken the disease, for which 212 cases have been detected in the villages of Kampungu, Makouomo, Kaluamba and Mombo, in the Mweka area, to typhoid fever.
A laboratory diagnosis is vital in order to determine the cause of the disease, said Minister Makwenge, before reassuring that authorities are in the meantime doing everything possible for the adequate management of the cases.
To prevent the spread of the disease, the Health Minister urges people to comply strictly with basic hygiene guidelines, namely to wash one's hands before eating, after relieving oneself and to drink boiled water.
This is not the first time the Congolese populations have been victims of such a disease.
In 1976, a few months after appearing in Sudan, cases of the then unknown Ebola haemorrhagic fever were detected in the former Zaire.
In 1998, the first African cases of the haemorrhagic Marburg fever were also reported in DR Congo.
Kinshasa - 04/09/2007
Panapress

http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/daily_news/unidentified_disease_kills_103_persons_in_dr_congo_200709057897/

[hawkeye]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Wiki Entry:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/WHO_investigates_outbreak_of_unidentified_illness_in_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

[Shannon Bennett]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

I keep doing internet searches for an update here and find nothing. Unrest in the country no doubt is adding to the problems. Anyone else able to find any data?

[hawkeye]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

I can't find anything either. All information regarding this particular situation in the Congo have disappeared.

[aurora]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

I just found this - dated Sept 5th. There is one thing in this article that's either a very significant change or a mistake - the number of children involved in the outbreak.

Most of the other articles report that 50% of the victims are children. (A few say there are only a few kids)
"Over 50% of cases have been in children under 10 years of age."
"more than half of the cases are children aged 10 years and younger."
"more than 50 per cent of cases involve children under the age of 10."

But this article says...

"More than 50% of the children under 10 years have been affected by the outbreak."

Mystery disease ravages DRC

afrol News, 5 September - A reported outbreak of a mysterious disease has killed more than 60 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), health officials confirmed. All those people, including health workers who had contact with the deaths had also succumbed to the disease.

The origin of the disease with high mortality rate is yet to be established. It has been reported in the Kasai-Occidental. Its outbreak followed the high number of deaths among pigs and chickens in the area's rural villages three months back.

Congolese health authorities could not tell the exact number of the cases or its death toll. But majority of the cases cause fever, headache, diarrhoea or colicky abdominal pain, and vomiting. More than 50% of the children under 10 years have been affected by the outbreak.

Health experts in Congo who team up with their colleagues from World Health Organisation (WHO) have been investigating the outbreak in the reported areas where they have taken clinical samples for laboratory testing.

Besides, the world health body is mobilising support for epidemiological investigation and logistics. Measures to improve hygiene, safe water supply, safe burial practices and effective infection control have since been under way.

The lack of masks for hospital workers has exposed them to the disease. A local nurse who was taking care of infected patients in a local hospital died of the mysterious outbreak.

Some experts linked the outbreak to hemorrhagic fever which might have been transmitted during the process of washing death bodies and funerals because many people, including a local chief, who attended a recent funeral died from fever and dehydration.

However, medical experts warned that they are still investigating the disease. As such, it will be too early to connect the new outbreak to hemorrhagic fever.

http://www.afrol.com/articles/26641

[aurora]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease


Congo Officials Confirm Ebola Outbreak

Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness outbreak in southeastern Congo as Ebola fever, officials said Monday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, and specifically as Ebola, Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television. More than 100 people have died of illness in the affected region since late August.

Makwenge did not say whether the outbreak had been contained.

Medical inspectors had previously said that people began dying after high-profile funerals of two village chiefs in the region where relatives usually wash the bodies of the deceased by hand.

In the past, Congo has seen large outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola, both hemorrhagic fevers caused by viruses that, in severe cases, attack the central nervous system and cause bleeding from the eyes, ears and other parts of the body.

By the end of August, four villages had been affected and 217 people had come down with the illness, including 103 who died. About 140,000 people live in the Mweka area.

Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 185 miles from the site of the current purported outbreak.

http://tinyurl.com/23kj5t

Is it ok to post a tinyurl address if the original addresses are long? If not, I will post the original.

Were there descriptions of bleeding in the outbreak? I didn't see any, but maybe I missed it.

[aurora]

There isn't always bleeding.

According to the WHO and the CDC every case of ebola does NOT include bleeding. That makes it a bit more difficult, doesn't it?..

The incubation period for Ebola HF ranges from 2 to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

[Shannon Bennett]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

Aurora, welcome to FT.

[Treyfish]

Re: 100 dead Congo hemorrhagic fever-WHO Experts In Congo To Study Mysterious Disease

This article from the Ap says 400 ill since late august with 160 dead.

Congo Officials Confirm Ebola Outbreak

53 minutes KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Lab results have confirmed a deadly illness outbreak in southeastern Congo as Ebola fever, officials said Monday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and another lab in Gabon confirmed the disease as a hemorrhagic fever, and specifically as Ebola, Health Minister Makwenge Kaput said on national television.
More than 160 people have died of the illness in the affected region since late August and nearly 400 have been infected, said Jean-Constatin Kanow, the chief medical inspector for the province.
He said the infections were mostly in two areas, Mweka and Luebo, and the majority of the deaths ocurred at the beginning of the outbreak.
"The number of sick continues to climb, but the deaths are decreasing because they are being taken care of by medical teams on the ground," Kanow said.
Makwenge did not say whether the outbreak had been contained.
Medical inspectors had previously said that people began dying after high-profile funerals of two village chiefs in the region where relatives usually wash the bodies of the deceased by hand.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions. It is not known where the initial infection came from, though medical researchers say it is likely from contact with an infected animal.
In the past, Congo has seen large outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola, both hemorrhagic fevers caused by viruses that, in severe cases, attack the central nervous system and cause bleeding from the eyes, ears and other parts of the body.
By the end of August, four villages had been affected and 217 people had come down with the illness, including 103 who died. About 140,000 people live in the Mweka area.
Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 185 miles from the site of the current purported outbreak. I went through some africa sites but could find nothing else yet, so I googled and this came up ,same story but different numbers.Yes, welome Aurora and good find! http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...H8ZfL5UauX3vWw
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!-- var related = new RelatedNews(getElement('body'), getElement('relatednews-section'), "http://news.google.com/news", 'en_US', "http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSh4nwue7JbWAZH8ZfL5UauX3vWw"); //--> </SCRIPT>

[Laidback Al]

Re: There isn't always bleeding.

According to the WHO and the CDC every case of ebola does NOT include bleeding. That makes it a bit more difficult, doesn't it?..

The incubation period for Ebola HF ranges from 2 to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

From the link posted by aurora, WHO has tabulated 1848 human cases of Ebola through 2004. CFR = 70%