Infections
UN fears epidemic as malaria sweeps Ethiopia
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A sharp increase in Malaria cases and deaths across Ethiopia has raised fears of an epidemic in the east African country, the United Nations said on Monday.
Health experts say most of the one million deaths caused annually by Malaria occur in Africa, costing the continent more than $12 billion every year.
Polio cases hit 205 in Indonesia, two in capital
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Health workers have identified 205 children infected with polio in Indonesia since the disease resurfaced this year, and two of the cases are in the densely populated capital Jakarta, officials said on Monday.
Polio, a water-borne disease that can cause irreversible paralysis in hours, reemerged in May in the world’s fourth most populous country, which had been polio-free since 1995.
Teacher caught licking students’ wounds
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The Oregon teachers’ board reprimanded a high school football coach for licking the bleeding wounds of student athletes, school officials said on Friday.
The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission placed Scott Reed, 34, on two years of probation and ordered the coach, who is also a science teacher to attend a class on the risks of blood-borne pathogens.
Romanian heatwave kills 56
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A heatwave gripping Romania since last week has contributed to the death of 56 people, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
With temperatures reaching 36 degrees Celsius (96.80 Fahrenheit), 1,000 people were in hospital with heat-related problems, it said.
“Those who died suffered from chronic illness, heart or neurological problems,” the ministry said in a statement.
Angola immunizes 5 million children in polio fight
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Angola stepped up its fight against polio on Sunday, with mothers out in force to take advantage of a nationwide immunization drive after the first appearance of the disease in the African country in four years.
The three-day, $3.74 million campaign was run by the Health Ministry, the United Nations Childrens Fund UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) and is aimed at stopping polio before it spreads.
China bacteria outbreak worsens, dead pigs dug up
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The number of people infected by what Chinese authorities believe is a pig-borne bacterial disease in the southwest has jumped by 14 to 131, state media said on Thursday as officials insisted the outbreak could be controlled.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is watching developments closely, but a spokesman said the disease appears to be localized and poses no threat internationally.
Dengue fever kills 3 in Yemen, 58 others infected
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Dengue fever has killed three people since appearing in Yemen early this month and 58 others have been infected, a Health Ministry official said on Sunday.
Ministry Under-Secretary Abbas al-Metwakel told the official news agency Saba that there were 423 suspected cases in three Yemeni provinces, particularly in eastern Shabwa province.
He said authorities had launched a campaign to kill mosquitoes to prevent a spread of the tropical disease.
Taiwan denies reports of re-emergence of SARS
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Taiwan’s health authorities denied on Wednesday domestic media reports that a man who died last week had tested positive for SARS.
The Chinese-language China Times reported that a businessman who had recently returned from China was suspected to have died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and one of his sons had since been hospitalised with similar symptoms.
Honduras sees 1.5 mln at risk from Chagas disease
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The deadly Chagas disease has infected 300,000 Hondurans and could spread to 1.5 million more without measures to halt it, a health official said on Thursday.
Chagas, which is transmitted mainly by blood-sucking insects known as kissing bugs, kills up to a third of its victims and disproportionately affects the rural poor in Latin America.
Indonesia polio outbreak nearly contained
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Indonesia has nearly contained its first polio outbreak in a decade because of fast action in vaccinating children in affected areas and a willingness to seek international help, health officials said on Monday.
Indonesian officials have detected eight polio-infected patients since discovering the first case last month about 100 km (62 miles) south of Jakarta. Several suspected cases are under investigation and a mass vaccination is set for May 31.
Severe dengue outbreak kills 12 in Thailand
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Thailand, where mosquitoes are a pest in every home, is facing a severe outbreak of dengue fever with 12 people dead so far this year, almost double the toll a year earlier, a health official said on Thursday.
Dengue has infected 7,200 people as of May 7, of whom 12 have died, up from seven deaths in the same period last year, Department of Disease Control chief Thawat Suntrajarn told Reuters.
“No province in Thailand is immune from dengue outbreaks because we have mosquitoes everywhere,” Thawat said, adding the outbreak usually peaks between late June and July when wet season rains are the heaviest.
Indonesia finds new polio cases - WHO
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Indonesia has found two new polio cases but the government has taken the right steps to control its first outbreak of the crippling disease in a decade, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.
The confirmation of new cases brings the total infections in Indonesia’s densely populated West Java province to six, said Georg Petersen, the U.N. health agency’s representative in Indonesia.
Indonesia is the 16th previously polio-free country to be reinfected in the past two years.
UK doctors call for hepatitis B jabs for children
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Doctors called on Tuesday for all British children to be vaccinated against the Hepatitis B virus that can cause serious liver disease.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said transmission of the virus has more than doubled in the past decade.
“It makes sense to immunise all children against Hepatitis B.
Indonesia says it’s getting control of polio outbreak
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Indonesia is bringing its first outbreak of polio in a decade under control, but the virus may exist elsewhere besides a concentration of villages in West Java province, a senior health official said on Monday.
Umar Fahmi, the top official in charge of communicable diseases at the Health Ministry, told Reuters the number of positive cases of polio was now four, after one child had been cleared.
“We can say it’s under control, although it really depends on where the virus has travelled to.
Indonesia finds second polio case, WHO urges action
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Indonesian health officials said on Wednesday they had found a second case of polio as the World Health Organisation (WHO) called on Jakarta to speed up a vaccination drive to prevent an outbreak of the deadly disease.
A top Indonesian health official said the second case was a 20-month-old infant in the same village in the province of West Java as the first child, the first case in Indonesia in a decade.
“This is a follow up investigation from the first case. We found several suspected cases of polio, and this morning we could confirm that there was another one,” Umar Fahmi, director general of communicable diseases eradication at the Health Ministry.
