Zacapa: Six children die of unknown disease - 3 confirmed influenza B, 1 rotavirus, 2 influenza H1N1

[alert]

http://www.promedmail.org/es

Published Date: 02/25/2012 22:07:38
Subject: PRO / E> Deaths, children, cause unknown: Warning - Guatemala (ZA)
Archive Number: 20120226.244179

DEATH, CHILDREN, CAUSE UNKNOWN: ALERT - GUATEMALA (Zacapa)
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A ProMED-mail
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: February 25, 2012
Source: Journal Bald Eye, Venezuela

[Edited by J. Torres]

The Guatemalan authorities issued a "special alert" by the
Six children died because of a strange disease. Classes
were suspended in the region, where the outbreak occurred and
begin vaccination campaigns.

Six children have died in that region of Guatemala. Symptoms
which have submitted include: diarrhea, fever, trouble
breathing, nausea, vomiting and convulsions. The National Center
Epidemiology ruled rotavirus, influenza b, hantavirus and
West Nile virus as the possible diseases that have
killed infants.

This Saturday President Otto Perez Molina and the Minister of Health
Public, Francisco Arredondo, traveled to the affected area, the colony
Model village about 270 kilometers east of the capital
Guatemala, home to about two thousand 800 people, to verify
the situation.

The president said that "we have declared a special alert (the
department) Zacapa, which is under surveillance. "

Meanwhile, Health Minister said that no other region in
the country to present pictures similar to those seen in Zacapa
and denied that it is a neurological syndrome, as had
speculated above.

The director of the National Epidemiology Center, Edgar Manuel Santos,
said that? all these results and all analyzes made here
in Guatemala were sent to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Diseases in Atlanta, USA, to determine the cause
of this disease?, and it is expected that the results are available
next week.

Health authorities try to determine if the deaths were
caused by the presence of toxic waste as used in
pesticides.

National hospital in Zacapa has opened a special room for
care for infants with the aforementioned symptoms. Furthermore, it has been installed
a detachment of medical professionals, serving as the first
control point to the disease.

The health department director, Jaime Guerra, said that
People settled in Modelo and other parts of the region, where
92 professionals including doctors, nurses, medical practitioners and
assistants are willing to provide primary care to
population.
There were 532 children treated between 3 and 14 years, of which nine
have been admitted to hospital.


Reported by: Jaime R. Torres

[alert]

Apparently, we're coming to this story a bit late...

http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.ph...81845&Itemid=1

Ensure control area health situation in Guatemala
Written by Julius Fumero

February 26, 2012, 07:45 Guatemala, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) Guatemalan health authorities claimed to have controlled a situation today with the death of six children caused alarm in the central-department of Zacapa.

According to Minister of Health and Welfare, Francisco Arredondo, work conducted epidemiological detected influenza B as the cause of three deaths and rotavirus in a while in the other two is unknown.

Until then speculated about the strangeness of the disease responsible for the deaths, as those carried out in the country not identified, so samples were sent for analysis to a specialized center in the United States.

To control the problem began a day of vaccination and monitoring the locations where they could have more cases of this kind, said Arredondo, who was on site yesterday with President Otto Perez Molina.

The first three patients were detected in a community called Village Model, just seven kilometers from the urban center of the city of Zacapa, head of the river, in which hospital died.

Guatemalan News Agency described as ironic the name of the village because more than 550 families who live without access to basic services like electricity or running water, and is visible insecurity and extreme poverty in which they live.

Between 10 and 21 this month occurred the deaths of children, whose ages ranged from two to 11 years.

[Ronan Kelly]

There is also the possibility of meningitis - that thread is here; http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=183149

[Ronan Kelly]

machine translated
Publicado 26.02.2012 | 02:24

After death of 6 children in Zacapa start vaccination

Fight Acute Neurological Syndrome outbreak in Model Town

Tamiflu doses were injected to children living in the places where they lived those killed in the outbreak.With a massive vaccination campaign in the Model Village settlement in the departmental capital of Zacapa, the government initiated preventive actions to deal with an outbreak of Acute Neurological Syndrome, which in 11 days has claimed the lives of six children, which "some suffered influenza," say the authorities.

Otto Perez Molina President and Minister of Health, Francisco Arredondo, yesterday visited the hospital to which children have been transferred.

"We started the implementation of 600 doses of vaccine, which supplied 25% of children between 0 and 2 years, while the remaining 75% will apply to those between 2 and 15 years, especially to infants who had contact with victims and their families, meanwhile, expect a similar quota formula to mobilize emergency and another that will provide sufficient quantities to recover the correct immunization schedules, "said Arredondo.

...

"What we live is the result of neglect of previous authorities of not vaccinating two years to the children in this sector, and we regret it," said Arredondo to make sure that place in the last administration did not run the days of influenza vaccination consistently.

Analysis in Atlanta

Not less than "two laboratory tests to the fatalities of the syndrome were sent to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, United States, to diagnose definitively the question that is being generated," said Health Minister, who did not reached to specify the date on which would have the results of the analyzes requested.

Despite the requirement to the U.S., Arredondo said that "there is a definite diagnosis of three cases in which influenza B was identified, while in another the box is related to rotavirus." He added: "The remaining two are still pending the outcome of the tests in America."

The victims of this syndrome died between 10 and 21 February. Three of the patients lived in Model Town and one in Santa Lucia, the municipality of Zacapa. Another victim was from El Pinal and one of Venice, in San Diego. The ages of those who succumbed to the disease were between 2 and 11 years.
...

Catalino Zachariah, grandfather of two of the victims of the syndrome, recalls how her grandchildren, Carlos and Jose Perez Zachary, 4 and 5 years, "even played together on the afternoon of Feb. 11, but we imagine that the next morning would smaller dead, "said between sobs.

According to the elderly resident in the settlement Model Village, a community that lacks water, sanitation and electricity eléctrica.Explica Carlos showed the first symptoms at about 7 pm Feb. 11, while dining and "began to vomit, "he explains.

"We thought the food had fallen ill, but that could not kill my grandson, as he walked out of here and the next day was no longer with us. Joseph was the same thing happened, though he could no longer speak and we lost, "says the grandfather distraught.
http://www.s21.com.gt/nacionales/201...ian-vacunacion

[Tonka]

http://noticias.univision.com/americ...#axzz1ngrbvMr2
Spanish-English translation

Discussed in EU virus that has killed six children in Guatemala
EFE | Date: 02/25/2012

A virus has killed at least six children in a rural community in Guatemala.
- Getty Images
It could be a 'acute neurological syndrome'

GUATEMALA - Health officials in Guatemala sent to a laboratory in Atlanta, United States, signs of a virus that has killed at least six children in a rural community east of the country, officials said.

The doctor Juan Tomas Garcia, National Zacapa hospital, told reporters that the evidence submitted to the U.S. were made to the six children died and three others who have tested positive for a virus, pose, could be the cause of "a acute neurological syndrome. "

The cases, Garcia said, there have been in the city of Zacapa and the municipalities of La Union and San Diego, and there are fears that it is a fast-spreading virus.

The virus causes respiratory complications in children, diarrhea, high fever, vomiting, nausea and convulsions.

The director of the National Epidemiology Center, Edgar Santos, said that after the laboratory tests to minors by local specialists has ruled that the case of rotavirus, influenza b, hantavirus and West Nile Virus

"All of these results and all the analyzes made here in Guatemala were sent to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA, to determine the cause of this disease," said Santos.

It is expected that test results are revealed in a week.

[tetano]

They confirm influenza B


Laboratory tests indicate that three of the children died last week in Zacapa contracted the influenza type B. The National Center of Epidemiología thinks about how to define the type of vine-stock.


The regional hospital of Zacapa registers the decease of 10 children with a neurological sharp syndrome.

In the next two months there for is waited an increase of the cases of seasonal influenza due to the epoch. A similar sprout was brought in Peru in 2000.


http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/...655134515.html

[tetano]

2 of 6 children who died in Zacapa 15 days ago also was for the influenza A H1N1.


http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20120310/pais/209260/