Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

[Shiloh]

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Source: http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200910/2715323.htm?desktop

More money for PNG outbreak aid

Pacific Beat

Last Updated: 23 hours 44 minutes ago

Health authorities in Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea have welcomed about $US4 million in funding by the government, to help stop the spread of cholera and other diseases.

In the past two months nearly 300 people have died after epidemics in Morobe and neighbouring provinces - with 190 of those deaths from cholera.

Provincial Health Officer Doctor Likei Theo says the money will help with the long term fight against cholera and other diseases.

He told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program future outbreaks could be more severe.

"The critical phase of the epidemic has been brought under control very well, but we are trying to work on how well we're going to successfully sustain this," he said.

"If we don't improve those situations we are most likely to have more of these epidemics or outbreaks again, and if it comes it's going to be more worse than what we already have."

 

[Shiloh]

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Source: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=49862


Dysentry outbreak kills two children in PNG highlands

Posted at 00:53 on 23 October, 2009 UTC

Two children are dead while 130 others have been treated for dysentery in the Papua New Guinea Western Highlands.

The Post Courier reports half of those affected were school children, forcing provincial authorities to close three elementary schools and a primary school since the outbreak was reported in Zumol village.

The paper says Zumol residents are now being discriminated against by surrounding villages, who claim they were the cause of a possible cholera outbreak.

Health authorities say though the outbreak was not cholera, dysentery, food poisoning and typhoid are related to the deadly disease which PNG experienced for the first time two months ago in Morobe province.

News Content ? Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

 

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Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,79758

Cholera - Papua New Guinea (Morobe)
Date: Mon 19 Oct 2009
Source: Radio New Zealand [edited]
<http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=49762>


Lae city in Papua New Guinea's Morobe Province has again been put on
red alert after 6 people were admitted to the cholera treatment
center in a single day late last week. The National newspaper reports
that on Thursday, 15 Oct 2009, 6 people were reported to have gone to
the centre with symptoms of cholera. Another person was admitted on
Friday, 16 Oct 2009.

Dr Likei Theo, chairman of the Morobe cholera outbreak task force,
says the emergence of a large number of cases in one day showed that
the people were returning to their old ways and were not as
fastidious over hygiene as they had been.

The development comes as most of the aid agencies and organizations
that were assisting the task force have left Morobe.

--
Communicated by:
HealthMap Alerts via ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[The province of Morobe can be found on a map of Papua New Guinea at:
<http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/papua.pdf>. - Mod.LL]

 

[Okieman]

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Cholera signs in Madang

MORE than 30 people, 10 of them children, have been admitted to Modilon Hospital and the Yagaun Health Centre with strong symptoms of cholera and provincial authorities have gone into full response mode.
The admissions come after the province had recently scaled down its cholera prevention status from high alert to stand-by mode a couple of weeks ago.
Madang Provincial Health Adviser Marcus Kachau said these cases are from a settlement (named) situated in the town.
Mr Kachau said the first of the admissions were made on Saturday evening and had exceeded 30 as of yesterday afternoon.
He said so far only one death had been reported. He said initial tests that had been carried out had proved negative but that the clinical presentations were ?strongly suggestive of cholera.

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20091027/tuhome.htm

 

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Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Re: 177 dead, 3300+ affected by several illnesses in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

From a week ago - apparently there is a resurgence of cholera in Morobe.

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=49768

PNG health officials relaunch campaign after more people contract cholera
Posted at 07:37 on 19 October, 2009 UTC

Health officials in Papua New Guinea?s second city, Lae, are planning to relaunch a campaign calling for improved hygiene amid a resurgence of cholera.

The disease claimed more than 20 lives during August and September but a public health emergency and extensive international aid support allowed for a hygiene campaign and which eased the outbreak.

However last week another 15 people were diagnosed with cholera and the provincial health administrator, Dr Likei Theo, says people seemed to gone back their old, unsafe ways.

He says the emergency remains in place but with the NGOs and international agencies having left the region, it?s been difficult to maintain the hygiene call.

?We don?t have the capacity to continue to sustain the force of it, to make sure that those who are cooking the food on the street are not allowed to do so, and other things - the people of the settlements do anything they like. So we are trying to build up our capacity again by recalling our partners and probably we can resume our extensive campaign.?
Dr Likei Theo.

News Content ? Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2009/s2769824.htm

Cholera spreads in PNG

Liam Fox reported this story on Saturday, December 12, 2009 08:09:00
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)

Alternate WMA version | MP3 download

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Papua New Guinea's first cholera outbreak is continuing to worsen but a government promise to provide millions of dollars to fight the disease remains unfulfilled.

The Health Minister blames PNG's notoriously dysfunctional bureaucracy for the funding delay and the Minister says there's nothing more he can do.

An international aid agency also says it might not be able to help contain the disease for much longer.

Our PNG correspondent Liam Fox reports.

LIAM FOX: It's been four months since PNG's first cholera outbreak was declared in Morobe province on PNG's north coast.

Since then the disease has spread to neighbouring provinces and is now in East Sepik 500 kilometres to the west, where at least eight people have died and 280 others have been infected.

Aid agency Oxfam is working there to distribute hygiene kits and set up catchments of clean water.

Program coordinator Andrew Rankin says it's hard going.

ANDREW RANKIN: Many of these communities are very isolated including two to four hours travel by boat from Ungaran (phonetic) town.

So it's very difficult with supply chains for materials and for the logistics and communication. This is making the response slow.

LIAM FOX: He says more resources are needed to halt the rising number of infections.

ANDREW RANKIN: It does feel like in some ways we are working like fire fighters putting out spot fires as we go along instead of being able to really pull through with a very comprehensive response.

LIAM FOX: In September the Health Minister Sasa Zibe declared a public health emergency. It gave authorities the power to prevent people moving to and from infected areas and to close down unsanitary facilities such as fast food stores.

He also said the government would release around five-million dollars to provincial health authorities to deal with the outbreak. That is yet to happen.

Mr Zibe says lazy bureaucrats in the finance, planning and health departments are to blame.

SASA ZIBE: The thing that I am most disgusted and unhappy about is our bureaucracy. The people that are supposed to implement the government policies are not doing that.

LIAM FOX: While he may be disgusted the minister says he has done all he can.

SASA ZIBE: We have done what we can at a political level. So it is not my job to go and get the money and give it to those people out in the field.

LIAM FOX: The ABC made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the treasury, finance and planning departments to find out what's happened to the promised funds.

The health secretary Dr Clement Malau says he's expecting a cheque from the planning department for more than a million dollars to be cleared in the coming days.

CLEMENT MALAU: We will use it for the critical areas that we want to address. That means ongoing support to Lae and we're now seeing a severe epidemic in Lae.

Madang, (inaudible) and the East Sepik is a real complex situation. And I am also 100 per cent certain now that it might come to the nation's capital.

LIAM FOX: But Dr Malau says it will now take much more than $5 million dollars to contain cholera in PNG.

International agencies like the World Health Organisation and Medecins Sans Frontiers have played a vital role in the fight against cholera so far.

But back in East Sepik Andrew Rankin from Oxfam says their resources are stretched and they might not be able to help for much longer.

ANDREW RANKIN: I would say our initial response will continue at least until mid to late January, but after that we'll have to wait and see around? looking at our situation.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: That's Andrew Rankin from Oxfam ending that report from Liam Fox in Port Moresby.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Source: http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/regional/1514-cholera-outbreak-in-pngs-north-worsens

Cholera outbreak in PNG?s north worsens
Thursday, 24 December 2009 11:41


Madang (RNZI) - A cholera outbreak affecting three provinces in Papua New Guinea has worsened.

The illness was first detected in Morobe province, but has since spread to Madang and East Sepik, infecting more than 1,400 people and claiming more than 30 lives.

?Voitek Asztabski from the organisation , Medecins Sans Frontieres, says his team is currently concentrating its efforts on the remote East Sepik.?

?Our priority right now is East Sepik river. Along the river we see new cases coming. The accumulative numbers are 349 with 8 deaths over there. MSF set up four CTU cholera treatment units in the area.?

Voitek Asztabski says 477 people are being treated against cholera in Morobe?s main hospital, and 659 people are receiving treatment at a cholera unit in Madang town.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

Source: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=51439


PNG cholera woes continue

Posted at 01:39 on 18 January, 2010 UTC

A cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe, Madang and East Sepik provinces is continuing to affect dozens of people.

The World Health Organisation has not received updated figures, but about 1,400 people were confirmed to suffer from the illness in total in late December.

The WHO?s epidemiologist Alex Rosewell says most districts in Madang are now reporting clinical cases, some villages in small numbers only.

Mr Rosewell says the areas requiring close attention are in the Murik lakes in East Sepik and Markham District in Morobe.

He says health officials and aid workers have been visiting the areas for infection control and to provide access to safe water.

 

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Re: Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

It is past time to close this thread (say make it up until January 1), and start a new thread for the ongoing cholera outbreak in PNG in 2009. There is far too much in this thread that has nothing to do with cholera.