Rift Valley Fever Kenya

[hawkeye]

Kenyan official: Rift Valley Fever outbreak passes peak point
Kenyan authorities said Tuesday that the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever that has claimed 139 lives had passed its peak point.

"The worst is over. But we will still get sporadic cases in areas prone to the disease," said Shahnaaz Sharif, the government's chief medical specialist. Health Minister Charity Ngilu made similar remarks at a news conference in Nairobi and urged people to eat well-cooked meat, avoid contacts with the sick or dying animals and sleep in insecticide treated nets.

The Rift Valley Fever is a viral disease that affects mainly animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats. But it can also affect humans.

The disease is most common during years of heavy rainfalls.

People get Rift Valley Fever mainly from bites of infected mosquitoes and the disease can also be spread through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected animal.

Rift Valley Fever can cause serious eye infection, inflammation of the brain, severe bleeding (hemorrhage) and death.

Sharif said the viral fever, which has no vaccine for humans, has not reached the capital Nairobi, but two travellers, from northern Kenya, have died in the city's hospitals.

Ngilu said the disease has infected more than 400 people.

The government had embarked on a livestock vaccination campaign but has been criticized for being unable to reach the targeted 2 million cattle.

The disease has claimed the lives of two people near Arusha of northern Tanzania, raising fears of an outbreak in Tanzania.

Rift Valley Fever broke out early December, with many of the country's meat-eaters refusing to go near a plate of roast beef, despite the government's insistence that the outbreak is under control.

The government has banned the slaughter and sale of meat from some of the worst affected areas, mostly the country's remote northeast near the Somali border where most residents are nomadic herdsmen.

Buying and selling of meat has greatly decreased across the country. Very little activity has been reported at slaughterhouses at Coast and Northeastern provinces where the disease was first reported.

"We have asked the public to eat only inspected meat, avoid human-animal contact, bury or burn dead animals and observe basic hygiene," Ngilu said.

Source: Xinhua

[Sharpe]

Re: Kenya Speculation

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200702081079.html

Abattoir Closed Amid Fears of Rift Valley Fever

The East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS
February 8, 2007
Posted to the web February 8, 2007

By Peter Mutai, Titus Too And Andrew Teyie
Nairobi

A slaughterhouse that serves Nakuru town has been closed in an effort to curb the spread of Rift Valley fever.

The veterinary department also imposed a quarantine in Naivasha after samples taken from animals in Marura farm tested positive for the fever.

This comes after an employee at the Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Nakuru was diagnosed with the disease.

Nakuru District Commissioner Mr Andrew Rukaria on Thursday said the move to close the slaughterhouse in Nakuru was aimed at curbing the spread of the fever, which has claimed 15, lives in the neighbouring Baringo district.

The slaughterhouse situated at Mogotio trading centre, has a capacity of handling 50 cattle and more than 100 goats per day, and is a major supplier of meat to Nakuru town and its environs.

Nakuru Medical Officer of Health Dr Kariuki Chege said the casual employee who tested positive to the fever was out of danger and has since been treated at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital and discharged.

The medic said the victim could have come in contact with fluids from carcasses brought to the regional laboratory for test. He said six Rift Valley fever patients from Marigat admitted at the hospital were out of danger and were responding positively to treatment.

Elsewhere, in Baringo District, the number of people admitted at various health facilities shot from 23 to 40.

District Medical Officer of health, Dr George Oriento, said the ministry of health has supplied adequate drugs, insecticides for spraying against mosquitoes, protective gear and 500 mosquito nets.

In Nandi, area District Veterinary Officer, Dr James Marisa, said there was no cause for alarm for poultry farmers in the area.

He was reacting a recent report in the media where a farmer lost over 200 chickens to an unknown disease.

Marisa said laboratory tests in Eldora had established that the deaths were as a result of Coccidiosis. He also allayed fears of Rift Valley fever in the district.

Separately, Marakwet East MP, Mrs Linah Jebii Kilimo, has appealed to the Government to dispatch Rift Valley fever experts to her constituency.

Kilimo appealed to the ministries of Health and Livestock for help as symptoms of the disease had already been detected in Marakwet.

"I am appealing to the Government to mobilise health personnel to my area since children and mothers have been visiting hospitals with the RVF symptoms," said Kilimo.

[Niko]

Re: Kenya Speculation

Livestock Farmers And Meat Eaters in Panic

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
February 8, 2007
Posted to the web February 7, 2007

By Mugumo Munene And Mike Mwaniki
Nairobi
It's a stealth enemy. And the battle is a race against time.

The deadly Rift Valley Fever, which has so far claimed some 140 lives, has driven mortal fear into the hearts of meat consumers.

A butcher examines his stock at Kiamaiko slaughter house, Nairobi, yesterday. The outbreak of RVF has sent panic among meat sellers and consumers.

Livestock owners are running scared too, wondering if their animals will survive long enough for the available vaccine to arrive on their farms.

Just yesterday, Joel Kamau, a cattle farmer in Ruai, placed a call to the Nation. Mr Kamau said that he was getting desperate because the vaccine the Government had provided had run out before his animals could be vaccinated.

Develop symptom

The Government has gone all out to educate the public that there is no cause for alarm. All we should do, they say, is to ensure that any symptoms of the fever are quickly reported and treated and human animal contact is reduced.

The Government has confirmed the presence of the disease in several districts and cautioned people, who develop symptoms, that they must quickly seek treatment. The districts include Garissa, Lamu, Maragua, Mwingi, Thika, Moyale, Taita Taveta, Laikipia, Malindi, Samburu, Machakos, Meru North, Meru South, Kirinyaga, Gatundu and Baringo.

The director of medical services, Dr Joseph Musaa, says that his department is on an all-out war against the fever and some 1.25 million doses of vaccine are available for livestock vaccination. The vaccines have been distributed to the high-risk districts. So far, some 751,463 livestock have been vaccinated and also treated.

The Government has also imposed a livestock quarantine in all areas hit by the disease, effectively causing acute shortage of milk and meat in those areas.

Just last week, the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council, said livestock traders in North Eastern and Coast provinces were losing about Sh45 million weekly due to the outbreak of the disease.

In order to keep business alive and the disease out of sight, the veterinary department has introduced "clean areas" where official verify the health of animals and once found to be fit for human consumption, transporters are then allowed to move them.

The recent spread appears to have been caused by the aedes mosquito, which, according to scientists, provides a perfect incubator for the virus for even up to 10 years. Aedes are a group of 24 species- the primary vector in transmission of the RVF virus.

Once the mosquito bites an animal, it infects it with the virus and the cycle begins. The phenomenon appears to have been triggered by the recent floods.

Since the outbreak, more than 400,000 animals - out of a targeted two million - have been vaccinated in the affected areas after the Livestock ministry launched a mass vaccination campaign.

The disease was first reported among livestock in Kenya around 1915, but the virus was not isolated until 1931.

RVF outbreaks occur across sub-Saharan Africa, with cases occurring elsewhere infrequently.

But between 1977 and 1978 several million people were infected and thousands died during a violent epidemic, while in September 2000, an outbreak was confirmed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

In humans, the virus can cause several different syndromes. Patients who become ill usually experience fever, generalized weakness, back pain, dizziness, and weight loss at the onset of the illness. Typically, patients recover within two to seven days after onset.

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[Niko]

Re: Kenya Speculation

<center> RVF advice ignored, veterinary boss says
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By KNA

The Rift Valley Provincial Director of Veterinary Services (PDVS) Dr Edward Mutai has expressed concern that people were still eating meat from dead livestock and drinking raw milk in areas affected by the dreaded Rift Valley Fever (RVF).


Dr Mutai said it was unfortunate that some people in Mukutani and Marigat division of Baringo district that have been hit by RVF were not heeding the advice issued by the ministry of Health and his department in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. ?With total disregard to the risks they expose to their health some people are eating meat from dead and sick animals as well as refusing to boil milk on the pretext that boiling milk would loose its ?food value?, he observed.


Dr Mutai and a team of Government officials were shocked when they found out that some residents of Logumgum, an area that has been identified as the epicentre of the disease in the district, slaughtered and shared out meat from a dead animal suspected to have been killed by the fever.


Dr Mutai said they issued instructions once they received reports of the dead animals that they should not be touched until veterinary officers arrived, but they were shocked to find the last pieces of meat being shared out.


By evening of the same day, 13 people from the village who confessed to have consumed the meat from dead carcasses were admitted to the Marigat sub district hospital with RVF symptoms, according to the clinical officer in charge Mrs. Rahab Randall.

Speaking yesterday when he visited Logumgum and Kiserian locations to sensitise wananchi on control measures being undertaken by the Government in conjunction with other partners, Dr Mutai said animal vaccination in the affected areas would not be undertaken until a surveillance team that was on the ground established the extent of infections.


Elsewhere, Livestock farmers in Charlidende location of Tana River district turned out in large numbers to present their animals for vaccination against RVF after a three-week boycott.


The residents had refused to have their animals vaccinated against the disease, claiming that the exercise was aimed at reducing their stock.


Speaking in Hola yesterday, the District Veterinary Officer Dr Anthony Kinyua said already 5000 animals have been vaccinated against the disease in the location.

http://www.timesnews.co.ke/09feb07/nwsstory/news4.html

[Sharpe]

Re: Kenya Speculation

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143964802

Five more die of Rift Valley Fever

By Standard Team

Five people, including four members of a family died of the dreaded Rift Valley Fever in Tana River and Baringo districts.

The five died as the Ministry of health warned Kenyans against handling animals suspected to be infected with the disease.

Dr Jack Nyamongo of National Public Health Laboratory Services/National Blood Transfusion Services said it was important not to handle material from infected animals.

He said veterinary officers at Kabete were testing samples from a cow confiscated in Ruai at the weekend to establish if the animal was infected with the deadly virus.

Last evening, the Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Joseph Musaa, said initial results indicated that the cow was suffering from a lumpy skin disease.

The four family members succumbed to the killer fever after attending a traditional wedding in Tana River on Monday.

The victims developed symptoms of the disease before bleeding to death barely two days after feasting on camel meat at the wedding ceremony in Anole village, Madogo division. Three of the victims died in the manyattas, while the fourth one was pronounced dead on arrival at Garissa Provincial General Hospital, where 21 other villagers were hospitalised.

North Eastern Provincial Medical Officer of Health, Dr Omar Ahmed, said more than 20 other villagers who attended the weekend function had been put under observation after developing symptoms of the disease.

He said most of the affected villagers were treated but subjected to periodic check-ups. Three of them were admitted at an isolation unit in the facility.

Omar regretted that most of the fresh cases reported over the last two weeks followed disregard of the slaughter ban.

Madogo DO, Mr George Omolo, said villagers reported the matter after three of the women who prepared the camel meat collapsed and bled to death.

Preliminary reports indicated that the camel had been bought, Omolo said.

He said the pastoralist who sold the animal was among those retained for specialised treatment at the hospital.

Panicky villagers, including those who ate cooked meat thronged local health centres to establish their RVF status.

This brings to 114 the number of deaths reported in northern Kenya since the outbreak of the disease two months ago.

In Baringo District the 18-year-old man died bringing the death toll in the area to 16 in the district. Medical Officer of Health, Dr George Otieno, said the man who had been receiving treatment at Kimalel Health Centre died on Saturday.

Nationally, 150 people have died of the disease in the past two months.

Otieno said a team of health workers had been dispatched to the affected villages in Marigat and Kiserian divisions to fight the disease.

He named the most affected villages where the fever has taken its toll as Ngambo location, Sindan, Sandai, Logumgum and Salabani all in Marigat division and some parts of Mukutani division.

He said the government has supplied the district with 500 mosquito nets and insecticides.

But Otieno said the chemicals were still lying at chemical stores in Kabarnet town, as the Government has not released money to hire casual workers to spray houses in the affected areas.

Baringo Central MP, Mr Gideon Moi, visited patients in Kimalel and Marigat sub-district hospitals and distributed more than 2,000 mosquito nets.

At the same time, farmers in Nakuru have asked the Government to declare the fever a national disaster.

Farmers meeting in Nakuru said yesterday criticised the Livestock Development ministry in the way it handled the matter.

Meanwhile, fears of the disease spreading in Meru Central have led to an order of closure of all abattoirs and butcheries in the area.

District veterinary officer, Dr Daniel Karugu, said samples from several suspected cows are being analysed.

Neighbouring districts of Isiolo, Meru North and Meru South have reported cases of the disease.






Colleagues And Villagers in Shock As Vet Succumbs to Rift Valley Fever

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
February 12, 2007
Posted to the web February 12, 2007

By George Munene And Muchemi Wachira
Nairobi

When veterinarian Chrisphine Chomba tested positive for Rift Valley Fever, his professional colleagues were dumb-founded.

Due to the nature of his work, he was regarded as a source of hope for millions of Kenyans threatened by the disease.

Dr Chomba, who was buried last weekend at his Kagio home in Kirinyaga District, was infected last month while performing a postmortem examination on a neighbour's goat with bare hands.

Dr Chomba, 46, was a lecturer at Animal Health and Industry Training Institute (Ahiti-Ndomba) in Kirinyaga, a few kilometres from his home.

Like most civil servants, veterinarians are poorly paid compared to their colleagues in human medicine. To supplement his income, Dr Chomba used to treat animals in his village and the surrounding areas for a fee.

While at home on January 29, Mr Elijah Maina, a neighbour, approached him. His goat had died and the farmer wanted him to establish the cause of its death.

By then, fear had gripped district residents following the outbreak of the disease.

At least a person had died and no one wanted to take any chances.

It is believed that the veterinarian contracted the disease during the operation.

"He carried out the postmortem without gloves, which are part of the protective gadgets," Veterinary Association of Kenya chairman Christopher Wanga points out.

One of his hands, Dr Wanga says, "may have had an open wound, and due to direct contact with the animal's fluids, he may have contracted the disease that way."

Dr Wanga says his colleague was taken ill a week after the operation. "He was diagnosed as suffering from the Rift Valley Fever," he adds.

On January 30, Dr Chomba, was admitted to Karira Mission Hospital after his condition worsened. He sweated profusely and suffered severe stomach pains and eventually succumbed to the illness the following day as medics tried to save his life.

Dr Chomba was the first veterinarian to succumb to the disease since it broke out.

Mr Maina said Dr Chomba did not charge him for the operation. "I was shocked when news went round that Dr Chomba fell sick and died," he said.

The farmer recalled how public health officials visited his home immediately the vetenarian died and took family members' blood samples for analysis, sending shock waves in the homestead.

Although Mr Maina and his family members have not shown any signs of the fever, they live in fear as they await the results.

"We are not happy until the results are out to clear us from the disease which has claimed the life of our great friend, who was always available whenever we had a problem related to our animals.

"He treated our animals at a reasonable fee during his free time and those who could not afford to pay, he gave them free services," he said.

Mr Johnson Muthee, a villager, said the residents were shocked over the death of the doctor whom they described as humble, hard-working and generous.

Mr Muthee said the doctor led a simple life and interacted well with the villagers.

"We have not been taking the outbreak of the disease seriously, but now we do because of our departed friend," Mr Muthee said.

His death, is a pointer to the hazards veterinarians are exposed to. "Although we can say Dr Chomba's case is part of the professional hazards we encounter, it also points to the raw deal the Government has given veterinarians compared to our colleagues in human medicine," Dr Wanga states.

The Veterinary Department is heavily understaffed and is allocated Sh200 million, considered insufficient by Dr Wanga. "We are always at risk when carrying out our job yet we don't have a risk allowance. Now that a colleague has died while conducting his professional duties, we are requesting the Treasury to give us a risk allowance," he says.

He notes that ailments such as Foot and Mouth, Anthrax, and Sleeping Sickness are dangerous to treat.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200702120583.html

[Snowy Owl]

Rift Valley Fever Kenya

Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology
Model Successfully Predicts Rift Valley Fever Outbreak

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070216.htm

By Kim Kaplan
A Rift Valley fever outbreak was successfully predicted several months in advance for the first time with a model developed by a team assembled by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist.


In October 2006, when the model predicted that Rift Valley fever would flare up within three months in sub-Saharan Africa, a warning was sent to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, which then passed on the warning to countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia.


The early warning allowed the countries most likely to be in harm's way to step up surveillance and control of insect vectors for the disease--actions that may have mitigated the outbreak. Rift Valley fever is primarily spread to livestock and humans by biting insects such as mosquitoes.


An outbreak of Rift Valley fever was blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people in Kenya in 1997-1998. Twenty years earlier, in 1977-1978, a Rift Valley fever epidemic in Egypt involved 200,000 human cases and 600 fatalities. The disease also attacks cattle, sheep, camels and goats.


So far, Rift Valley fever has not reached the United States, but having a model that can predict outbreaks allows the U.S. to know when to step up its own watch to prevent its spread to this country, according to entomologist Kenneth J. Linthicum, director of the ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Fla., who established the team. The team included researchers from the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections System and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center.


For the U.S. livestock industry, a Rift Valley fever outbreak would be devastating because the World Organization for Animal Health imposes a four-year ban on exports of beef, sheep or goat products from any country that has an outbreak.


The model is based on analyzing satellite images to find when vegetation is growing at a rapid rate in an area as a surrogate for weather conditions that include heavy rainfall, elevated humidity and heavy cloud cover. Such conditions give rise to major increases in the number and longevity of insects that spread the disease.


The model also can help predict outbreaks of other diseases of livestock and people such as malaria and cholera.


ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.

• Granddad's advice may help thwart mosquitoes
  
• ARS, DOD work to stop insect vectors
  
• How attractive are you?to mosquitoes?

<table align="left" bgcolor="#ebebeb" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" width="12%"><tbody><tr><td>Early warnings of Rift Valley fever outbreaks can help save people and livestock like these Ethiopian women and their bull, who are vulnerable to disease-carrying mosquitoes that reproduce in stagnant and slow-moving water. Photo courtesy Food and Agriculture Organization/Marc Bleich.
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Top: Particles of Phlebovirus, the causal agent of Rift Valley fever. Bottom: The map links to a website that provides detailed geographic distribution and other information about the disease. The website is hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Images courtesy FAO.

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[Laidback Al]

Re: Rift Valley Fever Kenya

Buffalo deaths raise fears of RVF in Park

By Karanja Njoroge
Panic has gripped Hells Gate National Park following the death of over 10 buffaloes.
The deaths have sparked fears among local conservationists that Rift Valley fever may have spread to wild animals, especially since two of the animals died in a farm where the first local case of the fever was reported.
Government officials said they are waiting for results of samples from the dead animals to determine the cause of death. The officer-in-charge at the park, Ms Lydia Kisoyan, confirmed the deaths. Meanwhile, the Naivasha Veterinary Officer, Mr Mathew Kimotho, has cautioned residents against people masquerading as veterinary officers.
Kimotho said one person was arrested after cheating a local farmer that he could vaccinate his cow against RVF."There are people who are cashing in on the disease by lying to farmers that they can vaccinate their animals at a fee,?? he said.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143965439

[hawkeye]

Re: Kenya Speculation

RIFT VALLEY FEVER - EASTERN AFRICA (20): WILDLIFE, NOT
************************************************** ****
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

[1]
Date: Mon 5 Mar 2007
From: Kariuki Njenga <KNjenga@ke.cdc.gov>


Tests performed on specimens from 8 dead buffalos from Baringo district
(not Hell's Gate) in Kenya were negative for Rift Valley Fever (RVF).
Baringo district has reported over 150 human cases of RVF, with 52 of these
confirmed by laboratory tests since late January 2007.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of sera from the animals was
negative, strongly suggesting that the death was not due to RVF. Serologic
testing is ongoing.

--
M Kariuki Njenga, PhD
Virologist and Laboratory Director

[Niko]

Re: Rift Valley Fever Kenya

Livestock Vaccination Stems Spread of RVF

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
March 6, 2007
Posted to the web March 6, 2007
Nairobi

An ongoing livestock vaccination campaign against an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) has stemmed the spread of the disease in Kenya, where the mosquito-borne illness, which affects both animals and humans, has killed 154 people since December 2006, officials said on Tuesday.

"We have not received any new (livestock) cases although our extension officers are still carrying out surveillance in the affected districts," said William Maritim, senior veterinary officer with the disease control unit of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.

At least 1.5 million livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats) are targeted for vaccination in the ongoing campaign in 33 districts where RVF cases have been reported. The worst affected districts were Garissa, Ijara and Wajir in Northeastern Province, Tana River and Kilifi districts in Coast Province, and Kirinyaga and Maragwa districts in Central Province.

"We are also in the process of procuring an additional 750,000 doses of vaccine to sustain the exercise," Maritim said.

The vaccination project, which began in Garissa on 8 January, is moving towards the Rift Valley Province, where the disease was first reported in 1931. RVF causes spontaneous abortions and death in animals.

Most of the vaccines have been imported from South Africa at approximately US$0.37 a dose.

The RVF virus is spread to humans from livestock via the aedes mosquito, which breeds rapidly during floods. The Northeastern Province, inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, was hit by devastating floods in the last three months of 2006 after heavier than normal rainfall.

It can be transmitted through contact with infected animal material, such as blood or other body fluids, or organs. Consumption of milk, a staple for many pastoral people, is also thought to lead to infection. Symptoms in humans include bleeding through the nose and mouth, and liver failure.

The government imposed a ban on the slaughter of livestock in the affected areas when RVF was first reported, leading to the closure of livestock markets in a region where people depend on animals for income and food. The ban has since been lifted, but a restriction on livestock movement is still in force.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703060544.html

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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rift Valley Fever Kenya

Kenya: Five More Die of Rift Valley Fever


The Nation (Nairobi)

March 28, 2007

Posted to the web March 27, 2007

Hussein Abdullahi
Nairobi

Five people have died of complications associated with Rift Valley fever in North Eastern Province, a doctor said yesterday.

Provincial medical officer of health Ahmed Omar told journalists in his office that the five contracted the highly contagious viral disease last December.


They were treated and discharged but died of post-recovery and treatment complications in Garissa and Ijara districts.

He also warned that the fever could re-emerge in the region with the onset of long rains which have pounded parts of Ijara in the last two weeks.

According to Dr Omar, the five died after developing meningo-encephalits - a condition linked to post recovery nervous and brain disorder that attacks those who had contracted the fever but were discharged after recovery.

A surveillance medical team that visited parts of Garissa and Ijara districts last week found three of the victims had died in Liboi and Fafi areas of Garissa.

They had in December been admitted to the isolation unit of Garissa Hospital after testing positive for the fever.

Two of the victims were women while the third was an 18-year-old herdsman.

The other two who died in Ijara had previously been admitted to Masalani health centre in January.

The two herdsmen are said to have died on their way to seek medical attention at Masalani district hospital.

Dr Omar also said the medical team had further found several cases of blindness among patients who were discharged from hospital between December and January.

He asked those who had been discharged from various health centres to report back to hospital should they show post-recovery complications.

According to the doctor, 354 people infected at the height of the fever recovered while 106 died in Garissa, Ijara and Wajir which had been the epicentre of the disease before it spread to other parts of the country.

Most of those affected by the fever that mainly affects livestock but spreads to humans through mosquito bites were herdsmen.

Their infections were attributed to their close contact with infected animals.

According to Dr Omar, flooding could fuel a resurgence of the fever because the aedes mosquitoes - which transmits the fever - get the virus after feeding on infected animals. They then transmit the virus to their eggs, and new generations of infected mosquitoes may hatch from such eggs.

The eggs hatch during heavy rains, leading to an increase in the number of mosquitoes.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703271150.html