Travel Health Service Year 2007

In Thailand, livestock authorities confirmed the country's second case of Avian Influenza outbreak in 2007. H5N1 Avian Influenza virus was detected in some 200 chickens at a poultry farm in the Si Chiangmai district of the northeastern border province of Nong Khai. Some 2000 chickens at the farm had been culled after 230 chickens at the farm died of unknown causes last Saturday.

In Indonesia, a 32-year-old woman from West Java who died on 19 January, was the 62^nd victim of Avian Influenza. She had contact with a sick chicken six days before she became ill. A 6-year-old girl from central Java who died on 19 January had been confirmed as the 63^rd death.

(Source: World Health Organization 22 January 2007 and ProMED-mail 25 January 2007)

The Ministry of Health in Egypt confirmed a new human case of H5N1 Avian Influenza infection on 22 January 2007. The victim was a 27-year-old woman who developed symptoms on 9 January and died on 19 January. Of the 19 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 11 had died.

About 1 300 birds died at a farm in Miyazaki, Japan. It was the second Avian Influenza case in a month in the prefecture. The virus detected among dead birds was confirmed to be the highly virulent H5 strain.

The health authorities of Hungary reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5 Avian Influenza in Csongrad County, southeast of the country. Abnormally high mortality was found in a flock of 3 000 geese. Further test would be done in the United Kingdom.

Health official of Indonesia said Filariasis was on the rise in Jambi province and during the past 5 years with 277 people diagnosed having the disease. The cases were recorded in three of the province's ten regions. The three affected regions were Muarojambi and West and East Tanjungjabung.

A Meningococcal Disease outbreak sweeping through southern Sudan had killed 17 people and infected 211. The affected states were Central Equatoria and Warap.

From 1 January to 21 January 2007, the Ministry of Health of Uganda had reported 241 suspected cases of Meningococcal Disease including 16 deaths in Arua/ Maracha-Terego, Koboko, and Yumbe districts, an area bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Neisseria meningitidis serogroups A, X, Y and Z had been identified in the specimens of the cases.

(Source: ProMED-mail 23 January 2007 and World Health Organization 24 January 2007)

Two cases of Rift Valley Fever were reported in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. Health officials said they did not represent an escalation as both cases returned from the affected provinces. Since the disease broke out in December 2006, at least 357 cases, including 100 deaths, were reported in Northeastern and Coast provinces.

In Tanzania, an outbreak of Cholera affecting at least 10 people with one death was reported in Zanzibar. The island had been repeatedly hit by Cholera epidemics since 1998.

In Uganda, an outbreak of Cholera affecting 27 people with 7 deaths was reported in Ntungamo district. The government officials suspected the disease was brought in from Kampala where an Cholera outbreak had claimed more than 10 lives with another 150 people being affected by the disease.

An outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea started in April last year affecting about 52 500 people with around 570 deaths was reported in Ethiopia. International agencies claimed the outbreak was due to Cholera. The mostly affected regions were Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Oromiya and Somali.

In Namibia, 3 people had died from Cholera in the Kunene region, where more than 200 cases of diarrhoea had been reported since early December last year.

In Angola, Cholera cases were reported in Cabinda and Luanda. In Cabinda, 1580 cases of Cholera, including 40 deaths, were registered since May last year. In Luanda, over 200 cases of Cholera, including 5 deaths, were reported from the first three weeks of this year.

In the Northeastern Province of Kenya, at least 10 people died from suspected Cholera were reported in Mandhera.

More than 300 passengers and crew aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 had fallen ill with symptoms associated with Norovirus Infection.