Namibia: Anthrax Outbreak Strikes Oshikoto

[Shiloh]

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201301210973.html

Namibia: Anthrax Outbreak Strikes Oshikoto
By Helvy Shaanika, 21 January 2013

Oshakati ? The Oshikoto Regional Health Directorate is hard at work to trace thousands of people believed to have been exposed to anthrax-infected beef.

Two people have already died of the disease and 3 000 are said to be at risk of anthrax infection.

The regional health directorate has sent officials out in the field to trace people who may have consumed the meat of cattle believed to have died of anthrax.

By Friday afternoon the Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital was already swamped by hundreds of people from Omadhiya, a village near the Onandjokwe Hospital and other areas in the Oniipa Constituency where the outbreak was reported...

[Catbird]

Re: Namibia: Anthrax Outbreak Strikes Oshikoto

AllAfrica: Namibia: 22 Anthrax Cases Reported Country Wide

28 January 2013

"A TOTAL of 22 people are confirmed to be infected with the deadly anthrax bacterium.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services have embarked on a mass campaign to create awareness about the disease and warn people to be on the lookout for symptoms.

The disease broke out on January 17 in the Oniipa Constituency in the Oshikoto Region.

Dr Norbert Forster, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, yesterday said the two people who had died had both eaten anthrax-infected beef.

According to him, the other 22 cases involve people who touched infected meat or the skin of the animals...".