Govt issues small pox alert in state - WHO says no outbreak of small pox in Myanmar

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- / user info --></TD></TR><TR><TD class=alt1 id=td_post_83579><!-- message, attachments, sig --><!-- icon and title --> Re: Alert issued for UNCONFIRMED disease
<HR style="COLOR: #cccccc" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=467 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>Govt issues small pox alert in state </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>Express News Service</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>
Kolkata, May 31:

The state government has issued a small pox alert throughout West Bengal after receiving preliminary unconfirmed reports of the disease from areas bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The chief medical officers of health in all the districts, especially those bordering Bangladesh, have been alerted and asked by the state health department to look out for the symptoms of the disease.

?We have issued a general alert after unconfirmed reports came in from our neighbouring countries.

However, the cases which have been reported are yet to be confirmed, so there is no need for panic.

As a precautionary measure, we have asked our health workers to keep a watch and be prepared,? said Surya Kanta Mishra, state health and family welfare minister. The minister stated that the state government is in constant touch with the Union ministry of health and NICED on the matter.

Burma-Bangladesh border area.

According to local health workers, many children in Maungdaw township are now suffering from the diseases, which broke out in the area at the beginning of last month.

Media reports from Nila border town in Teknaf stated that many children in the area are suffering from a small pox and measles epidemic. Small pox, which killed around 300 to 500 million people in the 20th century,

was certified as eradicated by the WHO in 1977. The last case of small pox was reported from Bangladesh in 1975.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fulls...?newsid=239043


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[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Govt issues small pox alert in state

Small Pox alert in West Bengal

Friday, June 01, 2007 12:37:50 pm


Smallpox, the only human infectious disease thought eradicated, returned to haunt the state of West Bengal today (June 1) following reports of outbreaks in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

There were unconfirmed media reports that an Bangladeshi Awami League leader has been suffering from the disease in prison ? after which the nation?s high commission is believed to have alerted the Indian MEA.

Following this the West Bengal government received a communiqu? from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the suspected outbreak of smallpox and measles along the borders of Bangladesh and Myanmar. No cases have been detected here so far.

Govt: No need to panic

Holding a press conference today, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anand Sharma said there was no need to panic ? however any report of an outbreak in the neighbourhood meant a standard warning had to be issued to the concerned bordering states to maintain vigil. He added that this did not mean the disease had returned, only that reports of an outbreak should be taken note of.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Ramadoss has categorically denied the presence of small pox, calling the media reports ?rumours?.

?We have received a confirmation from the World Health Organisation that a certain junior level health worker released this news but subsequently discovered that the disease was measles. I would like to assure everyone, that this is not small pox. The communiqu? has been sent to quell panic, as people would be apprehensive. We have thus asked for surveillance and observation of any patients suffering rashes and temperature,? said Ramadoss.

WB alerts CMOs, DMs

Following the communiqu?, the Calcutta airport, port and border posts have been told to screen passengers from these countries, especially Chittagong ? this according to S Baxi, Director of Health Services who spoke to TIMES NOW today.

?The communiqu? was sent to West Bengal as well as all other bordering northeastern states. All ten border districts ? including Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Nadia, Murshidabad and North and South 24 Parganas have been alerted. We have asked the district magistrates and chief medical officers of health of all the bordering districts that if suspected patients come across the Bangladesh border they should be will put them in isolation,? said Baxi, adding ?We cannot say if vaccines are still available, because the disease was eliminated in 1981.?

Baxi also said that the communiqu? directed that air travellers coming in from Bangladesh or Myanmar with temperature and rashes for 3-4 days should be put into isolation. However, World Health Organisation guidelines were awaited. ?Ideally laboratories in Bangladesh or Myanmar should carry out investigations on suspected cases to ascertain whether this could be a new virus or the small pox strain,? she said.

TIMES NOW sources say a team from the WHO is scheduled to visit four bordering states soon.

Sources: Inadequate infrastructure to screen passengers

TIMES NOW?s Sambit Pal reported that despite the alert being sounded two days ago that travellers should be screened, the lack of adequate infrastructure means this may not be implemented effectively. Cross-checking with border check-post at the Indo-Bangla border at South 24 Parganas, as well as Kolkata airport has revealed in fact, that no screening had this morning begun despite the warnings. There are at least 10 flights operating between the two countries from Kolkata airport everyday. Moreover the government will be hard pressed to monitor the inflow of people from porous parts of the border.

?The world is unprepared?

The World Health Organisation had declared the disease eradicated in 1979, so vaccines are not available. No specific cure is known for the viral infection that can kill up to a third of patients.

West Bengal health officials have said the School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta, is still equipped for diagnostic tests for the virus. However the STM told TIMES NOW that all vaccines to fight the disease had been destroyed after the elimination of the disease globally.

Speaking to TIMES NOW, Director of the School of Tropical Medicine N K Pal Shah said no country, except perhaps UK, USA and Russia, currently has vaccines against Small Pox.

?The whole world is unprepared to combat the disease,? he said adding that prevention of an outbreak would include identifying and quarantining the suspected case as well as the neighbourhood and vaccinating them within 4 days of the onset of first case. ?But, I believe report floated by media is unconfirmed report,? said Shah.

Small Pox: Symptoms

Smallpox is highly contagious and spreads primarily through prolonged social contact or direct contact with infected body fluids or contaminated objects, such as bedding or clothes. It can spread through the air in closed spaces but isn't transmitted by insects or animals.

Early symptoms are high temperature (101-104?C), body ache and headache. In two to three days, red spots appear in the mouth and tongue and break open into sores. Rashes all over the body follow. The rashes become fluid-filled bumps that turn into pustules. Finally, scabs form and fall off, often leaving lifelong pitted scars. Occasional side effects include blindness and infertility in males.

Smallpox was last reported in India in 1975, when around 1,400 people were infected. The disease is caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The deadlier form, V. major, has a mortality rate of 3 to 35 per cent while V. minor causes a milder form of the disease called alastrim and kills less than 1 per cent of patients.

http://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/Sports/Small_Pox_alert_in_West_Bengal/articleshow/2091150.cms

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Govt issues small pox alert in state

WHO says no outbreak of small pox in Myanmar
Friday, June 1, 2007 : 1730 Hrs
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus...0706011722.htm

Kolkata, June 1 (PTI):

The World Health Organisation has said reports of smallpox outbreak in Bangladesh is yet to be checked but there is no eruption of the deadly disease in Myanmar, West Bengal Health Minister Suryakanata Mishra today said here.

"The WHO's South Asia office has informed the National Institute of Communicable Diseases that it is not smallpox that has infected some people in Myanmar," Mishra told newspersons here.

"Regarding Bangladesh, they are yet to get information whether the disease is smallpox or something else," he said.

Stating that steps like screening people coming in from Bangladesh through land borders or at the airports have begun, Mishra said there was no need to be alarmed.

"The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) at Atlanta in the USA has been contacted on the issue," he said adding that at present there was no preventive medicine for smallpox as WHO had several years back declared that small pox had been eradicated.

Alarmed by reported outbreak of small pox at Rajshahi district in Bangladesh, West Bengal government had yesterday sounded a general alert in the state's northern districts.