Bugiri has been the site of many undiagnosed outbreaks (http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141327) over the past year, some of which were likely polio.
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,85529
Archive Number 20101027.3900
Published Date 27-OCT-2010
Subject PRO/EDR> Poliomyelitis - worldwide (23): Uganda
POLIOMYELITIS - WORLDWIDE (23): UGANDA
*****************************************
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: Tue 26 Oct 2010
Source: The New Vision Uganda [edited]
<http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/736215>
Polio is back in Uganda barely a year after the World Health
Organization (WHO) declared the country free of the disease.
The health ministry and WHO yesterday [25 Oct 2010] announced that
cases of the disease have been identified in Bugiri district where
one of the victims has developed paralysis.
Tests of samples done in South Africa found the virus to have been
imported from the Turkana area in North West Kenya.
As a result, the ministry and WHO have announced a 3-phase
supplementary vaccination exercise for 2 million children in 48
districts of eastern, northeastern, and northern Uganda.
Children aged of up to 5 years will be immunized in a house-to-house
exercise whose 1st phase will be carried out on 20 and 21 Nov 2010,
according to health minister Dr Stephen Mallinga.
"Every home will be visited and revisited if the children are away,"
Mallinga told journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala yesterday
[25 Oct 2010]. He jointly addressed the journalists with the WHO
country director, Dr Joaquim Saweka.
Poliomyelitis is a contagious viral disease that can lead to death.
However, about 95 percent of those infected with the virus show no
symptoms of the virus. Of these, 4 percent to 8 percent show
symptoms, according to medical reports.
The disease is said to appear in 3 forms. The mild form or abortive
polio is where one may fail to suspect they have polio because it
presents flu-like symptoms, mild respiratory infection, diarrhoea,
fever, and a sore throat.
The 2nd more serious form associated with aseptic meningitis, is
non-paralytic polio. It affects about 1-5 percent of those infected
with the virus. These show neurological symptoms like sensitivity to
light and stiffness in the neck.
The 3rd and severe type is debilitating and occurs in 1-2 percent of
those infected. This type known as paralytic polio causes paralysis
and [can lead to] death. The virus attacks nerves that control the
muscles in the limbs and those necessary for breathing. Here, it
causes respiratory difficulty and paralysis of arms and legs.
Immunisation offers protection against the disease.
Mallinga said it is suspected that the 2-year-old, who 1st fell
victim, was not immunized, though the mother claimed that she was.
The mother, according to the minister, could not produce an
immunisation card to prove her claim.
The 2nd round, he added, will be done on 11 and 12 Dec 2010 and the
3rd on 16 and 17 Jan 2011.
The exercise is expected to cost about sh 11 billion [approx USD 5
million], according to Mallinga. The money will be contributed by the
Government, WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The 1st phase will cost sh 4 billion [approx USD 1.8 million], the
2nd sh 3.6 billion [approx USD 1.58 million], while the 3rd will cost
sh 3.7 billion [approx USD 1.62 million]. The Government will
contribute sh 1.2 billion [approx USD 525 000] for social mobilization
Mallinga said next year [2011], there will be a national
supplementary vaccination exercise targeting 6 million children aged
5 years and below.
He said there had been a drop in vaccination coverage from 83 percent
to 76 percent this financial year [2009/2010] due to inadequate
resources in the health ministry.
Mallinga also attributed lack of immunisation to unwillingness of
parents to cooperate with health officials and blocking access to children.
Uganda was declared polio-free in December last year [2009] after the
absence of the disease for 13 years. The latest cases were reported
in Nawamboga village, Bulesa sub-county in Bugiri district.
The disease is spread through consumption of food contaminated with
faecal matter from an infected person.
[Byline: Anne Mugisa]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-EAFR
<promed-eafr@promedmail.org>
******
[2]
Date: 27 Oct 2010
Source: Xinhua Net [edited]
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-10/27/c_13576909_2.htm>
The Ugandan health ministry announced on Tuesday [26 Oct 2010] that
the country has been struck by a polio outbreak, the 2nd year in a
row after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the country
polio free in 2006.
A 2-year-old girl in the eastern Ugandan district of Bugiri fell
victim after laboratory tests both in Uganda and South Africa showed
that she had Wild Polio Virus Type 1 [WPCV-1].
"This 2-year-old child was well until [20 Sep 2010] when she
developed a fever. On [25-26 Sep 2010], she was taken to a health
center where she was treated for malaria. On [29 Sep 2010], she
failed to stand without support and became unable to walk using the
right leg," minister of health Stephen Mallinga narrated the girl's
ordeal to reporters here.
Experts say that the polio virus the child has is linked to the one
isolated in the Turkana region of Kenya on [3 Feb 2009], indicating
that the virus has been spreading up to the districts bordering
Kenya, Uganda's neighbor to the east.
The ministry of health now fears that 48 districts bordering with
Kenya are at risk or at worst, there may be already unreported cases
especially in the northeastern part of the country which borders the
Turkana region.
The polio virus is transmitted by drinking water or eating food
contaminated with fecal material containing the virus.
A child infected with the virus presents with acute fever followed by
weakness in the limbs.
Health experts say that out of 100 children infected with the virus,
only one develops the acute state of the disease which presents with
weakness of limbs.
Most of the polio outbreaks in Uganda are imported from neighboring
countries. In February 2009, a sample from a 16-month-old baby boy in
the northern Ugandan district of Amuru tested positive for the polio virus.
The virus is reported to have been imported from neighboring southern
Sudan where there was an outbreak.
The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo which had also reported
polio cases in 2009 continues to be a risk to Uganda as some
Congolese flee to the country when there are political upheavals back home.
"Uganda had been declared polio free, but in some of our neighboring
countries, the health situation there is not as well as it should
be," said Mallinga.
The polio situation in Uganda is likely to worsen as the country's
ministry of health is reporting that it is facing financial shortages
to help carry out polio immunization.
Mallinga said that until last year [2009], the ministry has been
depending entirely on donor funds to carry out the immunization programs.
According to observers, the financial crisis that has affected most
of the donor countries is likely to worsen the funding as they cut
back on spending.
Currently, the country needs about 11 billion shillings [USD 5
million] to carryout a mass immunization exercise in 48 districts,
but the ministry can only raise 1.3 billion shillings [USD 600 000].
Joaquim Saweka, WHO representative to Uganda said that there is need
for urgent mobilization of funds from both government and donor
agencies in order to fight polio, which not only poses a threat to
the country but the region and the world.
"We need immediate response to this outbreak; otherwise we will put
our children and the children of neighboring countries and the entire
world again at the risk of polio that was almost eradicated, " he said.
Despite the financial shortages, the ministry said that starting this
month [October 2010] until January next year [2011], a mass
immunization exercise is going to be carried out in 48 districts in
northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the country.
Malinga said that a house to house strategy will be used to ensure
that all targeted children are immunized.
Apart from this exercise, Mallinga said all the children in the
country below the age of 5 will be immunized against the crippling
disease during the country's routine immunizations exercises that are
held in April and October of every year.
He urged the public to take children below the age of 5 for
immunization at the nearest health facility.
Globally, polio is a diminishing disease, occurring more on the
Indian subcontinent and parts of west and central Africa.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Uganda has once again reported a new laboratory confirmed case of
polio virus, wild type, a disease that is subject to global
eradication. This comes 10 months after Uganda was declared polio
free following an earlier outbreak that started February 2009. The
wild polio virus [WPV] isolated in Bugiri, Eastern Uganda is
genetically linked to the one isolated in Turkana region, North West
Kenya on 3 Feb 2009. This implies that the virus has been circulating
in North East and Eastern Uganda for the last 21 months. Uganda
implemented a modified house-to-house polio immunisation campaign in
response to the February 2009 outbreak. This seems not to have
effectively prevented cross-border transmission of WPV from
North-West Kenya. This time round however, the country has opted for
a "house-to-house" strategy to ensure that all the targeted children
are reached. The strategy involves vaccinators going to every house
and dwelling place in an assigned geographical area and re-visiting h!
ouseholds where children are away at the time of the visit. The
strategy will be used during all the 3 rounds of Polio Supplemental
Immunization in 48 high risk districts in North East, East and Northern Uganda.
The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Uganda is available at
<http://healthmap.org/r/00Zn>. An administrative map of the country
can be seen at
<http://www.coetzee-uganda.com/index_files/District_Map_of_Uganda.htm>.
- Mod.JFW]
[The occurrence of this new case of WPV-1 (wild poliovirus type 1)
associated polio serves as a reminder of the challenges facing the
polio eradication activities, vis a vis "below the radar"
transmission of WPVs in areas with presumed high levels of
vaccination coverages. Uganda and Kenya were countries with early
successes in interrupting transmission of WPV within their countries.
Uganda had interrupted transmission in 1996, and Kenya in 1989.
Limited transmission of WPV was identified in both countries in 2009
with a total of 8 cases reported in Uganda and 18 cases reported in Kenya.
The identification of a WPV-1 isolate genetically similar to the
virus circulating in north-west Kenya in February 2009 suggests that
while the vaccination activities conducted in both Kenya and Uganda
during 2009 significantly reduced the number of susceptibles, there
were still persistent pockets of susceptibles to sustain transmission
of the WPV. The estimates are that for every WPV infection that
results in a case of paralytic disease, there are between 50 and 1000
individuals infected with the WPV without paralytic disease, the
average being cited as one per 200 infected. The non-paralytic
infections are associated with continuing the chain of transmission
of the WPV, which remains below the radar of routine surveillance
activities (that are aimed at identified acute flaccid paralysis
[AFP] cases). These non-paralytic cases require laboratory
surveillance which could include screening of healthy individuals and
individuals presenting with mild "viral illnesses" to identify their
presence, or environmental sampling to identify the WPV in the
environment (water and sanitation), very costly and labor intensive exercises.
A question that arises here is whether the circulation of this WPV-1
has been restricted to Uganda or if it is continuing "under the
radar" in Kenya as well. - Mod.MPP]
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,85529
Archive Number 20101027.3900
Published Date 27-OCT-2010
Subject PRO/EDR> Poliomyelitis - worldwide (23): Uganda
POLIOMYELITIS - WORLDWIDE (23): UGANDA
*****************************************
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: Tue 26 Oct 2010
Source: The New Vision Uganda [edited]
<http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/736215>
Polio is back in Uganda barely a year after the World Health
Organization (WHO) declared the country free of the disease.
The health ministry and WHO yesterday [25 Oct 2010] announced that
cases of the disease have been identified in Bugiri district where
one of the victims has developed paralysis.
Tests of samples done in South Africa found the virus to have been
imported from the Turkana area in North West Kenya.
As a result, the ministry and WHO have announced a 3-phase
supplementary vaccination exercise for 2 million children in 48
districts of eastern, northeastern, and northern Uganda.
Children aged of up to 5 years will be immunized in a house-to-house
exercise whose 1st phase will be carried out on 20 and 21 Nov 2010,
according to health minister Dr Stephen Mallinga.
"Every home will be visited and revisited if the children are away,"
Mallinga told journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala yesterday
[25 Oct 2010]. He jointly addressed the journalists with the WHO
country director, Dr Joaquim Saweka.
Poliomyelitis is a contagious viral disease that can lead to death.
However, about 95 percent of those infected with the virus show no
symptoms of the virus. Of these, 4 percent to 8 percent show
symptoms, according to medical reports.
The disease is said to appear in 3 forms. The mild form or abortive
polio is where one may fail to suspect they have polio because it
presents flu-like symptoms, mild respiratory infection, diarrhoea,
fever, and a sore throat.
The 2nd more serious form associated with aseptic meningitis, is
non-paralytic polio. It affects about 1-5 percent of those infected
with the virus. These show neurological symptoms like sensitivity to
light and stiffness in the neck.
The 3rd and severe type is debilitating and occurs in 1-2 percent of
those infected. This type known as paralytic polio causes paralysis
and [can lead to] death. The virus attacks nerves that control the
muscles in the limbs and those necessary for breathing. Here, it
causes respiratory difficulty and paralysis of arms and legs.
Immunisation offers protection against the disease.
Mallinga said it is suspected that the 2-year-old, who 1st fell
victim, was not immunized, though the mother claimed that she was.
The mother, according to the minister, could not produce an
immunisation card to prove her claim.
The 2nd round, he added, will be done on 11 and 12 Dec 2010 and the
3rd on 16 and 17 Jan 2011.
The exercise is expected to cost about sh 11 billion [approx USD 5
million], according to Mallinga. The money will be contributed by the
Government, WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The 1st phase will cost sh 4 billion [approx USD 1.8 million], the
2nd sh 3.6 billion [approx USD 1.58 million], while the 3rd will cost
sh 3.7 billion [approx USD 1.62 million]. The Government will
contribute sh 1.2 billion [approx USD 525 000] for social mobilization
Mallinga said next year [2011], there will be a national
supplementary vaccination exercise targeting 6 million children aged
5 years and below.
He said there had been a drop in vaccination coverage from 83 percent
to 76 percent this financial year [2009/2010] due to inadequate
resources in the health ministry.
Mallinga also attributed lack of immunisation to unwillingness of
parents to cooperate with health officials and blocking access to children.
Uganda was declared polio-free in December last year [2009] after the
absence of the disease for 13 years. The latest cases were reported
in Nawamboga village, Bulesa sub-county in Bugiri district.
The disease is spread through consumption of food contaminated with
faecal matter from an infected person.
[Byline: Anne Mugisa]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-EAFR
<promed-eafr@promedmail.org>
******
[2]
Date: 27 Oct 2010
Source: Xinhua Net [edited]
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-10/27/c_13576909_2.htm>
The Ugandan health ministry announced on Tuesday [26 Oct 2010] that
the country has been struck by a polio outbreak, the 2nd year in a
row after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the country
polio free in 2006.
A 2-year-old girl in the eastern Ugandan district of Bugiri fell
victim after laboratory tests both in Uganda and South Africa showed
that she had Wild Polio Virus Type 1 [WPCV-1].
"This 2-year-old child was well until [20 Sep 2010] when she
developed a fever. On [25-26 Sep 2010], she was taken to a health
center where she was treated for malaria. On [29 Sep 2010], she
failed to stand without support and became unable to walk using the
right leg," minister of health Stephen Mallinga narrated the girl's
ordeal to reporters here.
Experts say that the polio virus the child has is linked to the one
isolated in the Turkana region of Kenya on [3 Feb 2009], indicating
that the virus has been spreading up to the districts bordering
Kenya, Uganda's neighbor to the east.
The ministry of health now fears that 48 districts bordering with
Kenya are at risk or at worst, there may be already unreported cases
especially in the northeastern part of the country which borders the
Turkana region.
The polio virus is transmitted by drinking water or eating food
contaminated with fecal material containing the virus.
A child infected with the virus presents with acute fever followed by
weakness in the limbs.
Health experts say that out of 100 children infected with the virus,
only one develops the acute state of the disease which presents with
weakness of limbs.
Most of the polio outbreaks in Uganda are imported from neighboring
countries. In February 2009, a sample from a 16-month-old baby boy in
the northern Ugandan district of Amuru tested positive for the polio virus.
The virus is reported to have been imported from neighboring southern
Sudan where there was an outbreak.
The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo which had also reported
polio cases in 2009 continues to be a risk to Uganda as some
Congolese flee to the country when there are political upheavals back home.
"Uganda had been declared polio free, but in some of our neighboring
countries, the health situation there is not as well as it should
be," said Mallinga.
The polio situation in Uganda is likely to worsen as the country's
ministry of health is reporting that it is facing financial shortages
to help carry out polio immunization.
Mallinga said that until last year [2009], the ministry has been
depending entirely on donor funds to carry out the immunization programs.
According to observers, the financial crisis that has affected most
of the donor countries is likely to worsen the funding as they cut
back on spending.
Currently, the country needs about 11 billion shillings [USD 5
million] to carryout a mass immunization exercise in 48 districts,
but the ministry can only raise 1.3 billion shillings [USD 600 000].
Joaquim Saweka, WHO representative to Uganda said that there is need
for urgent mobilization of funds from both government and donor
agencies in order to fight polio, which not only poses a threat to
the country but the region and the world.
"We need immediate response to this outbreak; otherwise we will put
our children and the children of neighboring countries and the entire
world again at the risk of polio that was almost eradicated, " he said.
Despite the financial shortages, the ministry said that starting this
month [October 2010] until January next year [2011], a mass
immunization exercise is going to be carried out in 48 districts in
northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the country.
Malinga said that a house to house strategy will be used to ensure
that all targeted children are immunized.
Apart from this exercise, Mallinga said all the children in the
country below the age of 5 will be immunized against the crippling
disease during the country's routine immunizations exercises that are
held in April and October of every year.
He urged the public to take children below the age of 5 for
immunization at the nearest health facility.
Globally, polio is a diminishing disease, occurring more on the
Indian subcontinent and parts of west and central Africa.
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Uganda has once again reported a new laboratory confirmed case of
polio virus, wild type, a disease that is subject to global
eradication. This comes 10 months after Uganda was declared polio
free following an earlier outbreak that started February 2009. The
wild polio virus [WPV] isolated in Bugiri, Eastern Uganda is
genetically linked to the one isolated in Turkana region, North West
Kenya on 3 Feb 2009. This implies that the virus has been circulating
in North East and Eastern Uganda for the last 21 months. Uganda
implemented a modified house-to-house polio immunisation campaign in
response to the February 2009 outbreak. This seems not to have
effectively prevented cross-border transmission of WPV from
North-West Kenya. This time round however, the country has opted for
a "house-to-house" strategy to ensure that all the targeted children
are reached. The strategy involves vaccinators going to every house
and dwelling place in an assigned geographical area and re-visiting h!
ouseholds where children are away at the time of the visit. The
strategy will be used during all the 3 rounds of Polio Supplemental
Immunization in 48 high risk districts in North East, East and Northern Uganda.
The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Uganda is available at
<http://healthmap.org/r/00Zn>. An administrative map of the country
can be seen at
<http://www.coetzee-uganda.com/index_files/District_Map_of_Uganda.htm>.
- Mod.JFW]
[The occurrence of this new case of WPV-1 (wild poliovirus type 1)
associated polio serves as a reminder of the challenges facing the
polio eradication activities, vis a vis "below the radar"
transmission of WPVs in areas with presumed high levels of
vaccination coverages. Uganda and Kenya were countries with early
successes in interrupting transmission of WPV within their countries.
Uganda had interrupted transmission in 1996, and Kenya in 1989.
Limited transmission of WPV was identified in both countries in 2009
with a total of 8 cases reported in Uganda and 18 cases reported in Kenya.
The identification of a WPV-1 isolate genetically similar to the
virus circulating in north-west Kenya in February 2009 suggests that
while the vaccination activities conducted in both Kenya and Uganda
during 2009 significantly reduced the number of susceptibles, there
were still persistent pockets of susceptibles to sustain transmission
of the WPV. The estimates are that for every WPV infection that
results in a case of paralytic disease, there are between 50 and 1000
individuals infected with the WPV without paralytic disease, the
average being cited as one per 200 infected. The non-paralytic
infections are associated with continuing the chain of transmission
of the WPV, which remains below the radar of routine surveillance
activities (that are aimed at identified acute flaccid paralysis
[AFP] cases). These non-paralytic cases require laboratory
surveillance which could include screening of healthy individuals and
individuals presenting with mild "viral illnesses" to identify their
presence, or environmental sampling to identify the WPV in the
environment (water and sanitation), very costly and labor intensive exercises.
A question that arises here is whether the circulation of this WPV-1
has been restricted to Uganda or if it is continuing "under the
radar" in Kenya as well. - Mod.MPP]
