Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

[Gert van der Hoek]

Gabon takes measures in face of chikungunya virus

Gabon's government said Friday it had taken measures to protect against the chikungunya virus after initial tests indicated it had arrived in the western African nation for the first time.

Initial tests have shown that illnesses over the last month were due to the chikungunya virus, Gabon's council of ministers said in a statement.

The government has mobilised teams of national experts and from the World Health Organisation to develop strategies to combat the virus, it said.

A health ministry official told AFP that more than 5,500 cases have been counted over the last month in the province of Estuaire alone, which includes the capital Libreville.

"We can call it an epidemic," he said.

The mosquito-borne virus has traditionally been present in eastern Africa, southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It causes fever, headaches and muscle pain, and gets its name from a Swahili word meaning "that which bends up" because of the arthritic-type symptoms that leave victims stooped.

Most patients eventually recover.

In 2006, a chikungunya virus epidemic hit 40 percent of the population -- about 300,000 people -- on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. It claimed 254 lives either directly or indirectly.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070511181933.j1ug2msh&cat=null

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

CHIKV infection is common in sub-Saharan Africa; antibodies to CHIKV have frequently been detected during serosurveys throughout the humid forest and semi-arid savannas of Africa.

From research on chikungunya in Cameroon; Gabon is the southern neighbour of Cameroon:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=55883&postcount=2

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

machinetranslated

Gabon: Chikungunya is spreading : 7800 infected

Gabon (Libreville) May 20, 2007

Published on the Web on May 21, 2007

Libreville - The epidemic of Chikungunya takes proportions alarming in Gabon, declared Sunday the personnel looking after of the Hospital complex of Libreville (CHL), the largest hospital of the country.

The anti-vectorial fight counters the vector of Chikungunya in Gabon, constitutes the principal means of prevention but since the beginning of the week the medical authorities showed their limits since the number of listed people this week in the centers of health and hospital of Libreville reached 2300 is 4 times than the 5500 announced more by the government last week.

The environment and the climate support the propagation of the virus of Chikungunya just as that of Plasmodium falcifarum responsible for the paludism and which touches each year of the hundreds of thousands of Gabonese.

Paludism is considered endemic in Gabon but one attends since the Eighties lapparition of parasitic forms resistant to the most current treatments, containing chloroquine, in particular.

Today the looking after personnel combines two treatments. The Gabonese ministry of Health had withdraws there are two or three years of the walk the nivaquine then the flavoquine which did not produce any effect on the patients because of the resistances supported by self medication of the patients who combine the drugs without medical ordinance and half of the patients buy their drugs in the street because of their accessible price whereas they are false tablets in the majority of the cases.

Relevant bonds Central Africa Gabon Health and Medicine Water and Hygiene Transmitted by the mosquito aedes, the disease of Chikungunya could make devastations in the town of Libreville, or lives nearly 700.000 inhabitants and of which more half lies in the unhealthy poor districts which support the multiplication of the virus of Chikungunya.

To overcome the virus of Chikungunya, the medical authorities recommend the respect of healthiness and the continuation of simple gestures, like the inversion of the cups of the pots of flowers, of the tires of cars and any container which can retain water and make the nest of eggs of mosquitos.

At May 20, nearly 7800 people are contaminated by the virus of Chikungunya, only in Libreville and Owendo, its close suburbs.

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200705210321.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

machinetranslated

Gabon: The climatic changes would be at the origin of the epidemic of Chikungunya which strikes the country (minister)


(Libreville) May 21, 2007 Published on the Web on May 22, 2007 Libreville The Deputy Prime Minister in load of the environment Mrs. Georgette Koko, has in a discussion with the local press constant that the climatic changes observed in the world would be at the origin of the epidemic of Chikungunya which has struck in Gabon for more than two weeks.

“Today, we do not have any more of the clear seasons. It there has upheavals on the level of the climates”, declared Mrs. Koko, quoting for example the tsunamis which fell down in the Asian and American continents.

“In our country, you noticed that at a certain time it makes lime very. The small dry season is not clear any more, the great season also dries. The rains come constantly… ”, it continued.

“Compared to the epidemic of Chikungunya, it was supported by all the problems of urbanization, the antisocial behaviour, the household refuse are not collected in time, there are odors, the rains, the floods.

All that takes along natural phenomena such as the famous virus of Chikungunya”, added Mrs. Koko is a prelude to about it with the celebration this Tuesday of the world day of the biodiversity.

“The refuse, the rivers polluted downtown as at the village is the privileged places where the mosquitos develop”, she recalled.

Specialist in the environmental questions, the minister Gabonese invited the Gabonese one to cleanse their framework of life.

According to the epidemiologic cell of monitoring installation the shortly after the official advertisement of this epidemic (on May 11) in the country, more than 7500 cases were recorded mainly in Libreville.

More than 2.000 new cases of contamination by the virus of the chikungunya were listed of the 14 at last May 19, specified Dr. Medard Toung Mvé, person in charge for the cell. Relevant bonds Central Africa Gabon Health and Medicine No death ascribable to this virus was listed to date, specified Dr. Toung Mvé.

The virus of the chikungunya is transmitted to the man by the mosquito aedes and appears by fevers, headaches and pains muscular and articular.

Last Wednesday, the Gabonese ministry of health started an operation of desinsectisation of the districts of Libreville and Owendo to stop the epidemic. This operation will last twelve months.

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200705220318.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

machinetranslated

Gabon: Chikungunya, 11.500 cases already listed in Gabon

Cameroon Platform (Yaounde) June 1, 2007

Published on the Web on June 1, 2007

Alain Tchakounte

The disease of ?the curved man? continues to be propagated, even if the day before and the assumption of responsibility of the patients showed considerable rectifications. ?Consultation chikungunya, enter! ?

The voice of Moussande Mongo, male nurse in the Hospital complex of Libreville has just resounded in the corridor. A special room was arranged in this hospital formation. It is located in the block of oxyology and is the passage obliged for the patients of the chikungunya.

The room of reception d?semplit not, and the patients, relatively fewer compared to the first days continue to flow all the same. Headaches, pains to the articulations, prurit and badly of back: in fact the symptoms of the chikungunya made panic the brother of the young person Mangana Glenn, 19 years, arrived very feverish.

It to him was prescribed examinations of the thick drop as a preliminary, and after, of the drugs to calm the headaches and other pains. ?If the examination is negative, one directs oneself towards the chikungunya. If it is positive, it is simply the palu?, analyzes Moussande Mongo. ?One had never seen that in Gabon. In the room of reception, there were hundreds of patients laid down with same the ground, with perfusions.

Others which waited, in the corridor. A certain psychosis even settled, and the authorities operated public awareness campaigns in the media, giving the symptoms of the disease and the gestures useful to carry out?, remembers another male nurse, Marian Changaut 1st.

In Libreville, simply, more than 3000 cases were already detected. And it is estimated here that ?that is better?. Indeed, before alarm, the hospital personnel could not with which saint dedicate itself. ?The disease presented the same symptoms as the palu.

The care was managed, but the patients returned. One started to put questions?, deplores Marian Changaut 1st. But, to manage from there to give alarm, of administrative and medical slownesses effects on the assumption of responsibility of the patients had, because the treatment was not effective. ? Of slownesses which one can include/understand because one did not have to grope.

It was necessary in particular that the laboratories and the researchers confirm indeed that it is about the chikungunya ?, relativizes a male nurse. The Gabonese authorities thus set up the ?White Plan?, code name of the operation of management of the crisis born of the epidemic of Chikungunya. It was set in motion since alarm was given to Gabon, last on May 10.

?Plane White because everyone was lost and one started from nothing?, explains Ferla, young nurse. In this plan, the drugs are given free to the patients, a cell of day before was setting-up at the ministry for the Public health, a shutter seeks was reinforced and with the public awareness campaigns in the media, and on the simple methods of hygiene, as for the palu intensified.

Because, if the ?chik' S?, as call it Librevillois, did not kill yet, the most 11.500 cases listed at the day of today show that the propagation is real. And that it is necessary to be wary about it.

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200706010793.html

[sharon sanders]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

Mosquito Information FluTrackers is here.

If you have any questions about Chikungunya or mosquito abatement in Gabon or nearby areas please place them on this thread or email us at:

admin@flutrackers.com

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

machinetranslated

Gabon: The epidemic of chinkungunya extends

(Libreville) June 9, 2007

Libreville The epidemic of chikungunya develops with 14.000 cases of contamination

In spite of the operations of desinsectisation initiated by the services of hygiene for 3 weeks, the virus of Chinkungunya has gained little by little the province whereas the epidemic was circumscribed only with the capital, Libreville.

The towns of Port-Nice, Oyem and mainly the axis Libreville-Ntoum-Kango counted suspect cases, proof that the epidemic approaches its phase of extension. According to results' of first taking away, the propagation of the disease would result from the exit of Libreville of the people during the incubation period of the virus.

Gabon listed since the advertisement of the epidemic of chikungunya by the ministry for Health, more than 14000 official contaminations since the beginning of the epidemic. The agents of the service of hygiene do not disarm on the ground and continue their countryside of desinsectisation through the districts.

The messages of sensitizing multiply with the radio like on television encouraging the populations to adopt new behaviors of which the cleansing of their medium of life and especially a better management of the refuse. For only capital Libreville, a hundred volunteers were formed for d?sinsectiser the districts.

But this number is insufficient in comparison with the expansion of the disease in a capital where cohabit more than 700.000 inhabitants. The mosquito recovers the virus and propagates it By pricking an infected person, the mosquito recovers the virus and can thus propagate it.

Aedes female will be then infesting only after several days of development of the virus in its body: it is the extrinsic cycle which brings the virus of the digestive tract to the salivary nipples of the mosquito. No drug was developed to date; only an experimental vaccine was developed by the Institute of research of the army of the United States.

The vaccine stock (stock tah?landaise going back to 1962 attenuated by successive passages on cell vero of monkeys), was yielded by the Institute of research of the army of the United States to the INSERM which currently works on the preparation of tests of phase III at the man (requalification in progress - mid 2007).

The vaccine stock is in the course of requalification in France under the aegis of the INSERM. In the event of requalification positive, vaccine tests could be carried out in 2007 in metropolis (tests of tolerance), then later on in period of epidemic in a French territory of overseas (tests of effectiveness).

Because of the very strong viremy during the disease (up to 10 power 12 copies of virus per millilitre of blood at the patient during the first week of the disease), it is also necessary to insist on the need for isolating the patients (containment in residence, repulsive?), in order to limit the proliferation of the disease.

Indeed, in epidemic period, it is the sick man who constitutes the principal reserve of virus (the viremy can reach 10 power 10 viruses per millilitre of blood) and which is thus a danger to its entourage.

The only true prevention to date thus consists in fighting the reproduction and the proliferation of the mosquitos by elimination of the larval stagnant water lodgings, the covers of the swimming pools, the given up containers, the gutters, the tires stored outside, waste.

Relevant bonds Central Africa Gabon Health and Medicine Aedes albopictus, mosquito vector of the chikungunya is very related to the human activities.

The chikungunya made its appearance in the Comoros in July 2004. The north of Madagascar, Maurice, Seychelles and Mayotte, with more than 5000 officially declared cases are not saved, even if one speaks about it finally enough little (if the figures announced with the Meeting are close to reality, one can express serious doubts concerning the 4 other above mentioned areas).

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200706100002.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

machine translated

Chikungunya appears in Port - Nice and Oyem and changes to 14420 the number of the people reached by the epidemic

Gabonews (Libreville) CURRENT EVENTS June 8, 2007


Libreville - The virus of the chikungunya lately announced in the towns of Port - Nice (west) and Oyem (northern) after Ntoum and Kango in the province of the estuary (north-eastern), Libreville and Owendo in the communes of the Gabonese capital, carries from now on to 14420 people reached by this epidemic since its appearance to Gabon, according to the coordinator of the cell of medical day before ministry for the public health, Doctor Medard Toung Mv?.

?By taking of account the 5500 new cases of disease suspect?es inside the country, we will have 14.420 people reached of the chikungunya?, declared Mr. Toung Mv?.

After Libreville, Owendo, Kango and Ntoum in the province of the Estuary in the North-East of the country, of the new cases of the chikungunya, were announced recently in the place chief of the province of Ogoou? - Maritime (Port - Nice, western) and Oyem (Woleu - Ntem, north), thus passing from 8920 to 14420 cases of the people reached since her appearance in Gabon.

?The epidemic of Chikungunya is spread quickly in Gabon?, affirmed Doctor Ntoung Mv?. According to Mr. Mv?, no death related to this epidemic was still announced since its appearance to Gabon.

The virus chikungunya is transmitted to the man by the mosquito aedes and appears by fevers, headaches and pains muscular and articular. It is the first time that this virus strikes Gabon.

To protect itself from the virus from the chikungunya, it is advised to sleep under a mosquito net, to use products anti-mosquito and to remove the neighbourhoods from the houses of all the potential lodgings of laying of mosquitos.

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200706081091.html

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Africa: Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon

Cameroon takes measures against virus

YAOUNDE, June 27 -- Cameroon has launched a campaign to protect against the chikungunya virus in the south near its border with Gabon, which is experiencing an epidemic of the disease, national radio reported on Wednesday.

As part of the campaign, Cameroonian Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono travelled to the southern region of the country on Tuesday, handing over 11 million CFA francs (about R165 000) worth of medicine and materials to health stations in the towns of Kye-Ossi and Amban, Cameroon Radio and Television reported.

According to the public radio station, the campaign was launched after two Cameroonians who had recently returned from Gabon showed symptoms of the chikungunya disease.

No case of the illness has however been officially diagnosed in Cameroon.

Gabonese authorities announced on May 11 that the chikungunya virus had surfaced in the western African nation for the first time, and in recent weeks 16 000 cases have been reported there.

The mosquito-borne virus has traditionally been present in eastern Africa, southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It causes fever, headaches and muscle pain, and gets its name from a Swahili word meaning "that which bends up" because of the arthritic-type symptoms that leave victims stooped. Most patients eventually recover. - AFP

http://news.africast.com/africastv/article.php?newsID=62300