Current Travel Health News
Travel Health News Digest (6 March 2005)
World Health Organization (WHO) reported the first confirmed polio case, a 2-year-old child, and a suspected case in Ethiopia in the last four years. WHO had started a mass vaccination campaign to 22 African countries since late February.
(Source: Center for Disease Control, Taiwan 1/3/05)
In Mozambique, health authorities said that the cholera outbreak was very alarming. Four new cases were diagnosed recently bringing the total number of cases to 46, with one death. It was afraid that because of the rain, the disease might spread to other areas. In Nigeria, health officials reported that at least 51 people died and hundreds had been hospitalized following a major outbreak of cholera in southwestern Nigeria so far this year. Among them, 46 deaths occurred in a remote mining village of Kusa, 110 km north of the city of Ibadan.
(Source: ProMED-mail 4/3/05)
Central America: Rota virus gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus was rapidly spreading in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica in Central America. Since January this year, the disease had infected over 100,000 people and at least 62 people died, mostly children.
(Source: Xinhuanet 27/2/05)
In the coming spring this year, Japan will encounter a serious bout of hay fever. The amount of pollen is expected to surge 30-fold over last year and about 10 % of the population will be affected. Travellers going to the affected areas should aware of the risk during pollen season and take precautions to prevent hay fever.
(Source: Mingpao 3/3/05)
[Editor Note: Avoidance is the best way of preventing hay fever. As the hay fever in Japan is due to tree pollens, it is expected that this health risk will emerge every spring in the years to come, till the agricultural authority have replaced all the trees emitting large amount of pollens in spring.]
Timor-Leste: Dengue haemorrhagic fever [update-3]
As of late February, 336 hospitalized cases of dengue fever and 22 deaths were reported. Over 70% had clinical features compatible with dengue haemorrhagic fever. The affected districts were Baucau, Dili, Ermera, Liquica, Maliana, Manatuto and Viqueque. Seventy-six per cent of the cases were reported from Dili.
(Source: World Health Organization 1/3/05)
Taiwan: Dengue fever [update-22]
In a village in the Kaohsiung County of Taiwan, there had been 9 confirmed local cases of dengue fever from mid-December last year to the end of February this year. The health authority conducted home visits and health promotion, encouraging residents to eliminate potential mosquito-breeding sites so as to prevent further spread of the disease.
(Source: Central News Agency 3/3/05)
Taiwan: Acute mountain sickness
Two members of the Chung Cheng University Mountain Club suffered from severe acute mountain sickness while climbing Mountain Hsiangyang with altitude more than 3,200 metres in the Taitung County in late February. One died of lung oedema after being trapped in the mountain by snow without medical treatment.
(Source: Central News Agency 1/3/05)
[Editor Note: Mountaineers are prone to serious acute mountain sickness. They should be fully aware of symptoms of acute mountain sickness and if visit high altitude, they should take prophylactic medications for prevention and be aware that bad weather e.g. snow could prevent them from descending rapidly to lower altitude, the best treatment measure for severe acute mountain sickness.]
Jilin: Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
In January, there were 187 cases of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Jilin province. The incidence had increased 1.5 fold as compared with the same period last year. Almost 100 cases occurred in capital Chengchun.
Last year there were totally 1,840 cases of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome with 20 deaths in Jilin province. Anti-rodents campaign would be carried out by the local authority for controlling the spread of the disease.
(Source: Xinhuanet 1/3/05)
[Editor Note: Judging from the season of occurrence, this appears to be an outbreak caused by domestic rats.]
Southeast Asia: Avian influenza [update-27]
In Vietnam, one more person died of avian influenza, making a total of 13 fatal cases since December last year. The victim was a 69-year-old man who had consumed chicken during Lunar New Year in Thai Binh province. Another 21-year-old man from Thai Binh province was in critical condition because of avian flu. He had consumed goose before symptoms. His 14-year-old sister was also confirmed to suffer from avian flu. A 35-year-old woman from Hanoi was also confirmed to have contracted avian flu. She was a live poultry market cleaner, but had neither eaten poultry nor lived in bird flu hit areas.
In order to prevent the spread of avian influenza into the Mainland, health authorities have strengthened quarantine measures at the borders of Guangxi and Yunnan. Measures include closure of markets trading poultry and their products, strengthening the crackdown of smuggling of poultry and their products and vaccination against avian influenza. No outbreak was reported in the Mainland so far.
Bird flu resurfaced in Indonesia, killing 21,000 chickens in farms in West Java. Avian influenza had spread to 5 regencies and municipalities in the provinces.
(Source: ChinaNews 1/3/05, ProMED-mail 1/3 & 3/3/05)
Democratic Republic of Congo: Plague [update -2]
Since late February, a multidisciplinary team was carrying out intensive surveillance activities in Zobia of Oriental Province where the pneumonic plague broke out. There were 57 suspected and probable cases, including 16 deaths reported. All cases were pneumonic plague except 2 cases of septicaemic plague. The disease did not appear to be spreading beyond the mining town.
(Source: World Health Organisation 4/3/05)