Current Travel Health News
Travel Health News Digest (18 September 2005)
In Northern Osetia of Russia, 2 persons were hospitalised with cutaneous Anthrax.
(Source: ProMED-mail 14 September 2005)
In Nizhniy Novgorod of Russia, 356 people were hospitalised in an outbreak of Hepatitis A. The majority of the new cases lived in the Sormovskiy district.
(Source: ProMED-mail 15 September 2005)
An outbreak of Typhoid Fever had been reported in Delmas, Mpumalanga of South Africa. The number of Typhoid cases had increased to 116, with more than 700 others suffering from diarrhoea. Investigation revealed evidence of faecal contamination of drinking water. Residents had been asked to boil or purify water before use.
(Source: ProMED-mail 12 September 2005)
In Guinea-Bissau, a total of 14 333 people had contracted Cholera and 252 had died since the outbreak in June this year.
In Nigeria, at least 10 persons had been reported dead following a new outbreak of Cholera in Adamawa State, bringing the death toll in the state to 28 within a month. While in the central state of Kaduna, 10 persons died and several others were hospitalised because of the disease.
(Source: ProMED-mail 16 September 2005)
One case of Poliomyelitis had been reported in Mogadishu, Somalia which had been polio-free since 2002. The victim was a 15-month-old girl who had onset of paralysis around mid-July.
(Source: ProMED-mail 13 September 2005)
In Kyrgyzstan, 78 cases of Typhoid Fever had been reported during the last 8 months.
(Source: ProMED-mail 12 September 2005)
In Samuhskiy district of Azerbaijan, 3 people had contracted Anthrax. Prevention and control measures for the disease spread had been carried out.
(Source: ProMED-mail 14 September 2005)
The health officials of Iran said that the Cholera outbreak in August had affected half of all provinces, with 626 cases, among which 8 died. State television had also warned people to avoid consuming vegetables and ice sold on the street. Many restaurants had been prohibited from serving salads.
(Source: ProMED-mail 16 September 2005)
India: Japanese Encephalitis [update-3]
In India, 1 145 cases of Japanese Encephalitis had been reported from 14 districts of Uttar Pradesh Province. About one-fourth of these cases had died. Surveys in the affected villages revealed that there was high density of the mosquito vectors Culex tritaeniorhynchus and Culex vishnui.
(Source: World Health Organization 13 September 2005)
In Nepal, there were at least 15 new Typhoid Fever cases every day.
(Source: ProMED-mail 12 September 2005)
Indonesia: Avian Influenza, human
The Ministry of Health of Indonesia had confirmed a fatal human case of H5N1 Avian Influenza infection. The deceased was a 37-year-old woman who resided in Jakarta. She developed symptoms on 31 August and died on 10 September. No recent poultry deaths had been reported in the area.
Currently, 6 patients suspected of having contracted the infection had been admitted to Jakarta’s infectious disease hospital, including 2 workers of Ragunan Zoo which had being closed down for 3 weeks following earlier confirmation of some birds having contracted Avian Influenza there.
Indonesian government had imposed measures to keep the outbreak in Jakarta, including enhanced surveillance of birds, case management, health education and forced hospitalisation of people who exhibited symptoms of the disease.
(Source: World Health Organization 16 September 2005, ProMED-mail 19 September 2005, Associated Press 20 September 2005)
Indonesia: Hong Kong traveller contracted Dengue Fever
The Department of Health confirmed the seventeenth imported case of Dengue Fever this year. The patient had travelled to Indonesia in late August and developed symptoms of fever, neck pain, eye discomfort and joint pain after returning to Hong Kong. He was in stable condition.
(Source: Department of Health, HKSAR 12 September 2005)
Vietnam: Avian Influenza, human [update-3]
The Ministry of Health of Vietnam had retrospectively confirmed a human case of H5N1 Avian Influenza infection in July. The deceased, who was a 35-year-old farmer in Ben Tre Province, developed symptoms on 25 July and died on 31 July. Since mid-December 2004, a total of 64 confirmed cases were reported in Vietnam, of which 21 were fatal.
(Source: World Health Organization 19 September 2005)
The Ministry of Health of the Mainland reported that the number of Cholera cases in August was 116, 49 cases more than July, and much higher than the figure for the same period of 2004. The higher incidence was mainly the result of several outbreaks in rural areas.
(Source: ProMED-mail 16 September 2005)