Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea?s Morobe Province

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http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=48933

State of emergency in PNG?s Morobe likely after spread of cholera into Lae
Posted at 03:42 on 07 September, 2009 UTC

A state of emergency is expected to be declared in Papua New Guinea this afternoon as a deadly outbreak of cholera spreads to the city of Lae in Morobe province.

The Angau Memorial General Hospital in Lae says three people from the city have now died from cholera, and the hospital is treating 29 people with the disease.

The official death toll from outbreaks of cholera, and influenza and dysentery in Morobe province stands at 100.

But the Governor of Morobe Province Luther Wenge says eyewitness accounts indicate there could be more than 400 dead.

Our correspondent Oseah Philemon says the fluctuating figures are not surprising

?A lot of the places where disease have been reported it takes days to walk to the nearest health centre to provide a report. So by the time whoever travels to the health centre, more people will have died. So what the governor is saying is quite correct because of the rugged terrain, lack of road access, and lack of communication.?
Oseah Philemon says a state of emergency is expected to be declared this afternoon after a meeting of the National Executive Council.

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http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090907/news01.htm

State of emergency to be declared

By FRANCO NEBAS and PATRICK LEVO

CHOLERA, influenza and dysentery have gripped parts of Morobe Province and the National Executive Council is expected to meet today to declare a state
of emergency in the province.
Since the outbreak of the diseases, 100 people have died and the Department of Morobe, the Disaster and Emergency Service, the Health Department, the World
Health Organisation, the Prime Minister?s Department and the PNG Defence Force are working around the clock to contain the outbreaks and stabilise the
situation around the province.
Cholera, first reported in Wasu has hit Lae city and as of last Friday, three people from Lae died at the Angau Memorial Hospital, bringing the total number
of deaths from cholera to 13 including the 10th that had died in Wasu.
In Menyamya, six more people died while the flu and dysentery outbreak spreads into neighbouring Gulf and Eastern Highlands provinces.
The deaths bring the total to 87 as medical teams on patrol carry out awareness exercises and provide treatment to patients that have gone down with the
diseases. Authorities yesterday warned that Lae city was faced with a serious cholera threat and they expected the NEC decision to highlight this threat and
mobilise all relevant Government agencies and partners to move in to combat the disease. Morobe Provincial administrator Kemas Tomala warned at the weekend
that 20 more cases were reported at the Angau Memorial Hospital.
He said there was a chance the disease could spread to other centres as Lae was connected by road into the Highlands and Madang. The three deaths were from
the Bumbu settlement while other cases reported were from Maus Markham.
?It is also possible that the disease could spread to suburbs and settlements like Butibam, Buimo (Nawae), Malahang, Talair and Sawdust (Papua Compound),? he
said.
Mr Tomala led a team to Wasu in Tewai/Siassi district on the weekend to assess the situation on the ground and he was accompanied by Provincial Disaster
chief Roy Kamen, Angau?s Rural Health Services co-ordinator Dr Jack Marcus and media.

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http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/200909/s2678057.htm

WHO alarmed as PNG disease outbreak toll passes 400
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Updated 9 hours 37 minutes ago

The World Health Organisation says it is extremely concerned at the rising death toll from a triple outbreak of disease in the remote north-east of Papua New Guinea. More than 400 people are now understood to have died from the outbreaks of cholera, flu and dysentery in Morobe Province, and the provincial governor, Luther Wenge, says more than 100 of those deaths are from cholera. Despite urgent calls from Mr Wenge, the government has yet to declare a state of emergency, with Health Minister Sasa Zibe saying there's not enough information to make the declaration. But it now appears the outbreaks may be spreading - with newspaper reports saying patients with cholera symptoms have been admitted to a hospital in Morobe's Sialum district.

Presenter: Stephanie March
Speaker: Dr Eigil Sorensen, World Health Organisation, Port Moresby

Listen:Windows Media
SORENSEN: There is quite a significant operation going on at the moment. I think that they are still continuing transmission of chgolera in some of the areas, which started in a few weeks back, so supplies were lifted up there and staff have been deployed over the last week, so I think the supplies - oral rehydration salts, fluids are more adequate. Also in Lae town, they have set up an isolation unit in the provincial hospital. I think that is running quite well. Really the challenge now is since as you have seen from the media, it has been reported that cholera is established in and around Lae town, we have a situation where, particularly because cholera develops quite fast, we need to get the message and we need to get, for example, rehydration salts out to the communities in the settlement and out to the villages and that is really critical at this stage to save lives.

MARCH: Is there a public health awareness campaign going on in Lae and the surrounding areas?

SORENSEN: It has started and it is I think being operational-wise as we speak, so activities are going on in the affected communities, but from the WHO side, is to strongly scale this up, because we think that the care, in the case in the hospital is going fine, but really because of the rapid - if a person gets cholera, they can lose a lot of fluid in a lot of hours and needs treatment urgently. The advice is to make sure that the oral rehydration salt, people start taking that in the night they get diarrhoea, that for example or at posts in the settlements and that they can seek early help. And at the same time also communication messages related to safe water, washing hands, hygiene, etc - these are the critical elements related to control of cholera. And this needs to be scaled up significantly and I think the discussions going on with all the partners from the government side and civil society and the development partners, including AusAid, to see how that can be done. For example, it has been discussed how can you use some of the communication channels which are used for HIV awareness to get the message out for cholera. So we hope that in the coming days and week that we can see a significant scale-up on this and also considerable supplies have been brought in. A plane came in from Australia yesterday to Lae and in the coming days getting up to 700,000 sachets of salts brought into the country. So we need to get those out to the communities and to the health facilities.

MARCH: Should we expect further deaths from the cholera outbreak?

SORENSEN: Well, I think there is likely to be further deaths, because particularly they might occur in the remote villages, because at the moment the epidemic does not have one single focus - it's not like one settlement or one place where outbreak is going on. It's going at different sites. So there might be communities where there are cases that occur and we know that the health care system in Papua New Guinea has a lot of weaknesses and that means that if they get or seek help from the health authorities in the remote areas, that is not easy. So I think unfortunately, I think there can be further deaths expected, but I think we can reduce it significantly and if you get the awareness, the messages out to the communities, combined with this oral rehydration salts, help the water treatment in your local community etc. So that's really the key message to try to get this out.

MARCH: How are the local hospitals and health services coping?

SORENSEN: Actually the main provincial hospital in Lae is doing quite well. So I think the issue is for the major hospital is I am sure that they are managing cholera as such with the numbers, which are still relatively low. I mean there are not big outbreaks with hundreds of patients, so in that sense I think it's manageable. But really the health facilities in the periphery, in the rural areas, are weak in general and their capacity is quite limited and that we have to be realistic about. And in that sense, this is going to be a major challenge to tackle in the coming days. And since it's also established in Lae Town that we know that where it has the highway up to the Highlands, I think there is cause for transmitting the disease to other parts of the country is also there.

 

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http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/200909/s2678056.htm

PNG delays state over emergency over triple disease outbreak
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Updated 9 hours 39 minutes ago

The World Health Organisation says it is extremely concerned at the rising death toll from a triple outbreak of disease in the remote north-east of Papua New Guinea. More than 400 people are now understood to have died from the outbreaks of cholera, flu and dysentery in Morobe Province, and the provincial governor, Luther Wenge, says more than 100 of those deaths are from cholera. Despite urgent calls from Mr Wenge, the government has yet to declare a state of emergency, with Health Minister Sasa Zibe saying there's not enough information to make the declaration. But it now appears the outbreaks may be spreading - with newspaper reports saying patients with cholera symptoms have been admitted to a hospital in Morobe's Sialum district.

Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speaker: Firmin Nanol, Radio Australia's reporter in Port Moresby

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http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86035

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: First cholera cases in 50 years

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A Papua New Guinean from Bago-Bago wearing traditional dress. Many rural inhabitants have no idea what cholera is
BANGKOK, 7 September 2009 (IRIN) - Twelve people have died from the first outbreak of cholera in 50 years in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the disease must be urgently contained before it spreads further, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Eigil Sorensen, WHO?s representative in Papua New Guinea, said the cholera appeared in two coastal villages in northern Morobe Province at the end of July and gradually spread to four districts in the province, but was not identified until a month later.

?Cholera hasn?t been reported in Papua New Guinea for the last 50 years,? Sorenson told IRIN, adding that the world health body was investigating the cause of the outbreaks.

?It?s a major concern, mainly because the healthcare system in PNG remains weak ? Rural health services are quite weak and if cholera becomes endemic, it will become a major challenge,? he said.

Of the 130 reported cases so far, there had been 12 deaths, Sorensen said, and the disease appeared to be spreading through low level transmission.

?Since there is low level transmission and the number of cases remains relatively low, we think there is no contamination of any major water sources,? he said.

However, the disease has appeared in Lae, the provincial capital, which Sorenson attributed to people travelling from rural areas into the city.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A map of Papua New Guinea and surrounding countries
?While it started in rural areas, it spread [in] about eight to 10 days back to urban areas and settlements of Lae,? said Sorenson.

Medical NGO M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) said on 7 September that Angau Hospital in Lae was on high alert over the cholera outbreak, and that it had helped the Ministry of Health establish a cholera treatment centre there.

?MSF's emergency team has sent seven additional staff, including three nurses and a water and sanitation specialist, to assist in the urgent response.?

WHO is helping the PNG government to coordinate the response to the outbreak, and is advocating outreach activities to educate communities about cholera and preventing its spread.

?Rural areas don?t even know about cholera, so we need to get the message out,? Sorenson said.

Morobe Province has also been hit by unrelated outbreaks of seasonal influenza and shigella, a bacteria that causes bloody diarrhoea.

Sorenson said about 40 people might have died from shigella in the last month in remote districts in Morobe.

?The diarrhoea seems to be more virulent; there are a few more deaths than usual from the shigella,? he said, adding that limited health facilities and poor access to assistance might have contributed to the deaths. ?The topography of the country is such that any part of the country may not have access to communications, and there is limited knowledge of people [about] these diseases.?

 

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PNG top health official says epidemics show need to address infrastructure
Posted at 07:53 on 07 September, 2009 UTC

Papua New Guinea?s Secretary for Health, Dr Clement Malau, says the outbreaks of cholera and shigella infection in Morobe province, are symptoms of the poor health infrastructure in the country.

The diseases have claimed at least 100 lives but one estimate puts the toll at more than four hundred, with several thousand continuing to suffer the effects.

To try to contain the outbreak efforts are being made to have a state of emergency declared, though Dr Malau says a team of around 90 health officials is already working in the affected districts of Morobe.

Dr Malau says the outbreaks are a symptom of an ongoing problem which PNG needs to address - namely, its health systems breaking down at the lowest level.

?It?s basically a symptom of the basic infrastructure, the basic health needs of everyone, right at the lowest level of our facilities. People taking basic hygiene precautions, you know, and waste, waste management.?
Dr Malau is to lead a team of officials into region tomorrow to assess what is required.

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

From ReliefWeb today.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Oc.nsf/luFullMap/0689318197D8276BC125762A003D7726/$File/map.pdf?OpenElement

Morobe province:
Tewai - Siassi district: 99 reported cases of cholera
and 9 deaths reported in the .
Menyama district: 205 reported cases of dysentery
and 17 reported deaths.
In addtion, there was a further 278 reported cases
of influenza with 14 reported deaths.

 

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http://lewisinpng.blogspot.com/2009/09/cholera-in-lae.html

Sunday, September 6, 2009
Cholera in Lae
The Cholera Outbreak in Lae is still getting bigger. As of yesterday there are 28 patients admitted to hospital. There have been three deaths here in Lae and seven in Wasu (northern coast of Morobe Province).
The Flu/Dysentery in Menyama is also increasing in numbers and in geographical area. I will be heading up there sometime in the next day or so with a team to do a needs assessment.

Medicine Sans Frontiers, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) have set up with the help of the Defence Forces a Cholera Treatment Unit in 4 tents at ANGAU hospital and have flown in more specialist personnel. World Health Organisation have also sent specialists.
This is the first incident of Cholera in PNG and because of this there are not many people that know what cholera is and what to do about it.
Awareness notices and 'toksaves' are spreading the news about prevention around the city.
The FIVE 'F's will be hopefully known by everyone soon.
Fluids (care of safe water with boiling and treatment)
Food (dont eat uncooked food)
Fingers (washing of hands)
Feaces (sanitation methods)
Flies (spread of disease through flies)

 

[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

PNG Province Map
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/australia/papua_newguinea_pol89.jpg

 

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PNG?s top medical official leads a team to areas hit by illness
Posted at 19:21 on 07 September, 2009 UTC

Papua New Guinea?s top medical official will today lead a team to assess the districts of Morobe province hit by outbreaks of cholera and shigella bacterial infection.

The diseases have already claimed at least 100 lives but local estimates have put the death toll at over four hundred.

The Government is still considering whether to declare a state of emergency which would free up more resources, though the Secretary for Health Dr Clement Malau, says a lot of work is already being done by the more than 90 medical staff in the region.

But he says they will be looking for additional help from outside Morobe.

?So we are working on other adjacent provinces and districts to help so that is why I am going up there with the Chief Secretary. Chief Secretary has also offered to come with us, together with the World Health Organisation and the AusAID representative here. We are going up to make a quick assessment of what is being done at the moment.?
Papua New Guinea?s Secretary for Health Dr Clement Malau.

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http://anvanderheide.blogspot.com/2009/09/cholera-in-lae.html

Tuesday, September 8, 2009
cholera in Lae

Lae (and surrounding areas) is now dealing with an outbreak of cholera on top of a dysentery type outbreak in the Menyamya area. A lot of foreign organisations are madly working around the clock especially to contain the cholera outbreak. A number of people have already died. Even our school is on high alert with the canteen already being downgraded to only selling prepackaged foods. Cholera is spread mainly by infected water, food and flies. When contracted it can kill very quickly through rapid dehydration. It can also be treated quickly...if only the people go and seek immedidate help. The settlements and villages where hygiene is so poor (no running water, etc) is a perfect breeding ground for cholera to spread. Medical organisations (and we all are in our own small ways) are trying to spread the word to get people to boil water, wash their hands, cook food well and keep flies off food. An army complex has been set up at the hospital and MSF (doctors without borders) is running the treatment of the cholera there. Cholera has been diagnosed also in the Bumbu settlement which we are working in. Please join us in praying that this Cholera outbreak may be contained, as well as the other mystery illness in the highlands, and that God will bless the hands of those who seek to help in small ways and big to treat these illnesses!
Posted by Andrew and Natalie VanderHeide at 6:37 AM

 

[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

Comment: We've got containment actions being reported. See below.

200 pupils infected
Source:
PISAI GUMAR in MENYAMYA

MORE than 200 pupils and teachers of a large primary school in Menyamya have been diagnosed with both swine dysentery and influenza, as the station?s health centre awaits in distress for medicines, medical personnel and water supply system.
The school, Hakwange Primary, some three hours drive from Menyamya station, has been quarantined by health workers.
A total of 201 of the 562 pupils and six of the 14 teachers and dependents were yesterday being treated.
Only one report was released by Morobe provincial deputy health adviser Micah Yawing, who is also the Menyamya task force coordinator.
He reported the deaths of two elementary pupils at Hengiyapa.
?It was now a major worry when children began to die with no help in sight,? Mr Yawing said.
Meanwhile, classes at Hakwange Primary, which was supposed to have begun with the ninth week of term three yesterday, have been suspended by district education co-ordinator Ron Anakai, for a month.
Headmaster John Akuse said all students would be contained in the school area and treated. At the other primary schools, no one was affected at Umela, less than 20 were being treated at Kwaplalim, while Lagai in Kaintiba, Gulf province, was yet to be assessed.
Teams that had travelled to the villages in Menyamya had returned last night with statistics but they were being kept under tabs for analysis.
Mr Yawing and his assistant task force co-ordinator and Menyamya district administrator Samson Aaron were last night ?having nightmares? because of an apparent lack of support from Lae.
?We need medicines. We need additional staff members. And we need water tanks. I can?t go on like this while people, particularly children, are dying,? he said.
Mr Yawing was yesterday pleading for water tanks to be supplied to the Menyamya Health Centre.
He said they would need at least four 8,000l Tuffa tanks.
Without water and treatment chemicals and pumps and connections, their efforts to contain the outbreak would be futile, and more people, including children, would die.
Even more pressing is the need for rations for the health workers to take on patrols into the affected areas and for patients admitted to the Menyamya health centre as well as a water supply system.
A meeting of the Menyamya task force on Sunday afternoon came up with an action plan and appointed personnel to several posts, including a media liaison officer.
Among the measures approved for implementation was an immediate and indefinite ban on all travel into and out of Menyamya.
The ban has been placed at the Kotai Bridge where policemen stand guard.
The task force was given K20,000 yesterday by Menyamya MP Benjamin Phillip to cover rations.
The Bank South Pacific was the first firm to donate money.
It gave K10,000 to the Menyamya task force through the health sector programme account to buy immediate needs.
Mr Yawing added that the most severely affected areas were those in the Hakwange area of the Kome LLG were the 38,000 people have yet to be fully assessed, treated and educated on preventative measures.
He said the dysentery was acquired from drinking water from creeks polluted by pigs? waste compounded by lack of proper toilets.
In other areas such as Wailala in Eastern Highlands province, the death toll was reported to have risen from one to 10.
Heavy rains had prevented teams from travelling into the area.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/473


-----------------

Govt to declare SoE
Source:
DAISY PAWA TANIOVA

THE health task force for containing the triple cholera, swine dysentery and flu epidemic in Morobe province is not able to give the statistics from all the affected areas.
Chairman of the task force and Morobe provincial programme adviser for Health Dr Likei Theo and his team were in a meeting all day yesterday to discuss and verify figures from the cholera outbreak in Wasu and Lae and the swine dysentery and flu in Menyamya.
He would be holding a press conference this morning to release the figures.
The Government has realised the severity of the epidemic.
Health secretary Dr Clement Malau said last night the Health Minister would be advising the Government to declare a state of emergency in Morobe province.
In the meantime, 10 new cases showing signs and symptoms of cholera have been reported at the Angau Memorial General Hospital quarantined area and are currently under observation, according to two reliable sources who are currently working on site.
This number would now bring the total number of treated patients to 40, an increase from 30 on Sunday evening.
The quarantine site workers at Angau said there were no reports of deaths from cholera in Lae.
They added that the patients were improving and some had already been discharged.
Meanwhile, Dr Theo has advised Lae city residents to take extra precautions in caring for their hygiene as the recent outbreak of cholera in the province was believed to be a result of poor living conditions.
He said cholera and other types of diarrhoea could be avoided if the ?five Fs? of hygiene were practised.
This would mean boiling all fluids, eat food which is properly cooked and avoid eating cooked food from open markets.
Fingers or hands should be washed with soap or ash after visiting the toilet and before handling food.
Flies should not be allowed to sit on food and faeces should be deposited in pit latrines or covered with sand or soil.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/472

 

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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

PNG fears cholera spread beyond Morobe
Posted at 01:26 on 08 September, 2009 UTC

The Papua New Guinea government is very concerned that an outbreak of cholera in Morobe could spread around the country and it?s looking at declaring a state of emergency to try and contain it.

The secretary for health, Dr Clement Malau, is today leading a team, that includes the government?s chief secretary and donor agencies, to make an assessment of the Morobe districts where cholera and a separate shigella bacteria outbreak have hit over the past three weeks.

The official death toll from both diseases is put at just over 100 but the Governor of Morobe, Luther Wenge, says information he?s received from villagers indicates over four hundred have died.

Dr Malau says it?s the first time cholera has been in the country and he?s particularly concerned that it doesn?t spread.

?The fact that even in Port Moresby, the way we practise general hygiene in our market systems here is really really of concern. Along the Highlands Highway, the way people buy and sell food is also a very big concern. We already have cholera in the country and if it spreads to those areas we are very concerned that it might be a major national concern.?
?Dr Clement Malau, the PNG secretary for health?

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=48971

 

[hawkeye]

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

Papua New Guinea:
Cholera, dysentery and
influenza outbreaks

DREF operation n° MDRPG004
Glide No. EP-2009-000185-PNG
7 September, 2009

CHF 43,878 (USD 41,339 or EUR 28,923) has been allocated from the Federation’s Disaster Relief
Emergency Fund (DREF) to support Papua New Guinea Red Cross Society (PNGRCS) in
delivering immediate assistance to some 5,000 beneficiaries. Unearmarked funds to repay DREF
are encouraged.

Summary:
A State of Emergency has been declared in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea in response to outbreaks of cholera, influenza and dysentery across two districts within the province. There have been 99 reported cases of cholera and 9 deaths reported in the district of Tewai – Siassi to date. In
Menyamya district there are 205 reported cases of dysentery and 17 reported deaths as a result. In addition, there was a further 278 reported cases of influenza with 14 reported deaths. The Papua New Guinea Red Cross is in the process of mobilizing volunteers and relief stocks in an effort to support the containment of the diseases.


The situation
A cholera outbreak in Morobe province, Papua New Guinea which is said to have been first detected on 28 July, was first reported to health personnel on 4 August. While the outbreak was initially concentrated in the village of Nambariwa in the district of Tewai - Siassi, it had spread to a further three villages: Lambutina, Towat and Wasu by 6 August. As of 2 September there were also cases being reported in a further two villages: Woka and Lailo. There is also growing concern regarding the population of Lae in the Morobe provincial capital, (which has a population of 300,000), where there have been 14 reported cases and one reported death.

Simultaneously in the district of Menyamya, there have been 278 reported cases of influenza resulting in 14 reported deaths; and a further 205 reported cases of dysentery with 17 reported deaths. The outbreaks in Menyamya are currently isolated to three villages: Hakwenge, Wapi and
Kome.

Water specialists are looking at the chlorination levels of the water supply in Lae as it is a transit point for the five highland provinces, the four Momase provinces: East Sepik, Madang, Morobe, and West Sepik (Sandaun). This also includes the provinces of Milne Bay and Oro.

Two health assessment teams headed by the national department of health have been into the cholera affected areas to assess the situation and determine response needs. The villages affected by influenza and dysentery in the district of Menyamya are in a very remote area of the Morobe province; and the district has limited communication. Health teams have to be air dropped as there are no roads into this mountainous area. A health assessment team went to Menyamya on 4 September and is expected to return to Lae on 7 September.

 

[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

Comment: The article title is a bit misleading. The Menyamya outbreak is due to Dysentery and Influenza.

Cholera toll at 101

By Lae Bureau reporters

The number of deaths from the Menyamya outbreak has reached 101 with two more deaths reported at Ekwange, medical co-ordinator of the relief effort Micah Yawing said last night.
Solomon Bomo an officer in charge of Menyamya district, yesterday returned from Kwaplalim sub health centre on the border of Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces with very bad news.
According to Mr Bomo 10 people died yesterday at Vailala in Obura Wonenara in the Eastern Highlands.
One of the saddest moments he witnessed was that of a young baby girl. The baby was taken by relatives from her dying mother in Vailala to save her life.
A medical team was on its way to Kwaplalim yesterday. A helicopter was being organised to airlift a team to Vailala.
Meanwhile, reports from Asakumdi say the outbreak has reached frightening proportions with even animals affected. A man from that villages said pigs were affected and had swollen faces.
Meanwhile two children seven to eight succumbed to a combination of dysentry and influenza on Sunday at Kambasepa village in Menyamya district of Morobe Province.
Post-Courier reporter Haiveta Kivia learned of the sad deaths as he was making his way by road with a medical team to the Umba area on the border of the Morobe and Eastern Highlands provinces.
?It grieved my heart and I shed tears as a father myself to learn that two children about the same age as my son had passed away when help was so near and sadly, a few days late,? he said last night.
Hengiapa aid post community health worker Simeon Aniam said he learned of the deaths yesterday morning after opening the aid post. Hengiapa is about half an hour walk from Kambasepa.
He said he had sent two of his men to Kambasepa but they had yet to return with the ground report. He said Hayapa village past Hengiapa was also badly affected.
He said the people were too weak to come to Hengiapa for treatment. Health extension officer Ringo Bariana headed the medical team to the Hengiapa and Umba areas.
When notified of the deaths, he returned to Hengiapa only to find that the aid post had run out of drugs due to the high number of influenza patients. Mr Bariana will return to Hengiapa from Menyamya government station today with more drugs. At Umba, 130 patients had diarrhoea symptoms. HEO Bariana said the patients posed no immediate danger to themselves or the community.
?The community health worker Bobby Martin has done a marvellous job and they should all be able to recover,? he said. ?Our immediate concern is the Hayapa and Kambasepa areas.?
Despite the SoE declaration, there is no sign of assistance from the Government. Mr Yawing, head of the medical teams on the ground in Menyamya, said he wants direct and improved communications with important officials in Lae.

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/tuhome.htm


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Aust brings in medical supplies

A health officer carrying an AusAID funded medical supplies that arrived in Lae on Saturday.

Australia is providing emergency medical supplies and equipment to Papua New Guinea for communities affected by the recent cholera outbreak. Eleven people have died and at least 116 people are suspected of contracting cholera in two separate outbreaks in Morobe Province.
Following a request from the PNG Government, Australia-funded supplies arrived in Lae on Saturday, equipping health teams with more than 250,000 water purification tablets, protective clothing, and more than 37,000 clean containers for water storage and transport. Australia also provided money to the World Health Organisation for 500,000 oral rehydration salts.
Australia?s contribution is being distributed through the World Health Organisation and PNG?s national Department of Health, working on the ground to co-ordinate relief efforts.
This is the first confirmed outbreak of cholera in PNG since the 1960s. Cholera is transmitted through water and food contaminated with the cholera organism. The disease can be successfully treated through rehydration to replace lost fluids, but if not treated can be fatal.

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/tuhome.htm

 

[JetStuuby]

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

Meanwhile, reports from Asakumdi say the outbreak has reached frightening proportions with even animals affected. A man from that villages said pigs were affected and had swollen faces.

Interesting development as cholera is not often found in animals......


"Cholera has 2 main reservoirs, man and water. V cholerae is rarely isolated from animals, and animals do not play a role in transmission of disease." from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/962643-overview

What is going on in Papua?

 

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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.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/452

Fear of reduced coffee trade in disease- stricken areas
Source:
The National
THE effects of the present outbreak of cholera on coffee production in the Menyamya district of Morobe province would be known after the disease has been contained, the major coffee buyer in the district said yesterday.
Yha-Hauka Kopi Ltd general manager Finan Romaso said the coffee picking season was over and growers were now drying their coffee.
But, with the cholera attack on the people of Menyamya, he was uncertain on the number of growers who would be able to sell their produce.
Likewise, Mr Romaso said the company had already reduced its coffee-buying in the district due to the poor road conditions.
The company used to buy up to 120,000 bags of coffee annually, but this had now been reduced to half due to the poor condition of the main highway between Lae and Menyamya.
Yesterday, heavy trucks were able to get through to Menyamya but Mr Romaso said the condition of the feeder roads which connected the highway to the coffee producing villages remained in appalling conditions.
A cash flow problem was another factor contributing to the reduction in coffee-buying in the Menyamya and Aseki areas, he said.
Mr Romaso said the company was hoping Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare would give them the money he promised in 2007 so that they could increase coffee-buying and export.
Sir Michael had confirmed promising to give the company K1.5 million but until now, the company has not received anything.

 

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http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/tuhome.htm

Seafood cited as cholera link

By FRANCO NEBAS

LOCAL health authorities in Tewai/Siassi district in Morobe Province have suspected that cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish.
District health admini-strator Tureng Tamba said cholera had never reached Papua New Guinea but the risk to PNG was mainly from border crossers from the Indonesian border
area.
He said however, cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish, from a port where foreign vessels have discharged waste or ballast.
?In our situation, the villages affected were people living along the coast where they mainly rely on fishing,? he said.
He said that the villagers may have contracted cholera after eating shellfish that may have fed on human waste discharged from a passing foreign vessel from an infected
person.
He said the disease may have spread from person to person through contaminated hands.
?This is what we think, however we have to confirm with an epidermis how the disease was contracted,? he said.
Meanwhile after a personal visit to the affected villages, Morobe provincial administrator Kemas Tomala has instructed for a supply of additional manpower and medicine to the
villages.
Mr Tomala visited the villages of Nambariva and Lambatina where cholera first started.
Local and provincial medical officers were working together with representatives from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to prevent the disease from spreading.
Mr Tomala also commended the effort put in by local health workers and WHO to contain the disease from spreading to neighbouring villages.
The officers from WHO were first to be on the ground last week together with local health officers treating diagnosed adults.
Provincial health inspector Joe Wartovo was also there carrying out an awareness campaign on water supply, sanitation and personal hygiene.
Mr Wartovo told the people in the villages to maintain good water supply, sanitation and personal hygiene.
He said he had observed that personal hygiene was lacking among the people in the villages and encouraged them to improve in this area.

 

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http://www.trupela.com/2009/09/08/cholera-outbreak-confirmed-in-eastern-highlands/

Browse: Home / Planti Stori long Ples / The latest on the Cholera Outbreak
The latest on the Cholera Outbreak
By Robert on September 8, 2009

I was having a chat this afternoon with a couple of the doctors from Goroka General Hospital on the Cholera situation in Morobe and now the Eastern Highlands. One of the good doctors commented that the local newspapers are reporting several illnesses: dysentery, cholera, influenza and swine flu.

Which one is it? I asked him. Which illness are people dying from?

We?re still not 100% sure what is causing the deaths ? the good doctor replied ? the symptoms described in the media are also the symptoms of severe and wide spread food poisoning.

(By the way? the story I posted on Sunday: ?Has Cholera crossed over into the Eastern Highlands? ? was confirmed in The National yesterday.)

Perhaps the discussion I was having with the local doctors highlights the general confusion as to what is really going on. The number of deaths, villages and people affected, whether a state of emergency has been declared or not, the illness itself ? each day, each story, each newspaper is reporting discrepancies.

One fact remains? people are definitively dying!

Here?s a few excerpts of the various stories news items that appeared in today?s PNG Press:




200 Pupils Infected
The National: story by Pisai Gumar in Menyama

More than 200 pupils and teachers of a large primary school in Menyamya have been diagnosed with both swine dysentery and influenza, as the station?s health centre awaits in distress for medicines, medical personnel and water supply system. The school, Hakwange Primary, some three hours drive from Menyamya station, has been quarantined by health workers?



Government to declare SOE
The National: story by Daisy Pawa Taniova

THE health task force for containing the triple cholera, swine dysentery and flu epidemic in Morobe province is not able to give the statistics from all the affected areas. Chairman of the task force and Morobe provincial programme adviser for Health Dr Likei Theo and his team were in a meeting all day yesterday to discuss and verify figures from the cholera outbreak in Wasu and Lae and the swine dysentery and flu in Menyamya. He would be holding a press conference this morning to release the figures. The Government has realised the severity of the epidemic. Health secretary Dr Clement Malau said last night the Health Minister would be advising the Government to declare a state of emergency in Morobe province?



Cholera toll at 101
Post Courier: story by Lae Bureau reporters

The number of deaths from the Menyamya outbreak has reached 101 with two more deaths reported at Ekwange, medical co-ordinator of the relief effort Micah Yawing said last night. Solomon Bomo an officer in charge of Menyamya district, yesterday returned from Kwaplalim sub health centre on the border of Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces with very bad news. According to Mr Bomo 10 people died yesterday at Vailala in Obura Wonenara in the Eastern Highlands?



Seafood cited as cholera link
Post Courier: story by Franco Nebas reporters

Local health authorities in Tewai/Siassi district in Morobe Province have suspected that cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish. District health admini-strator Tureng Tamba said cholera had never reached Papua New Guinea but the risk to PNG was mainly from border crossers from the Indonesian border area. He said however, cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish, from a port where foreign vessels have discharged waste or ballast?.

 

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http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/view02.htm

viewpoints
Tuesday 08th September, 2009


Health conditions must be improved

IT is sad to read about many of our people in Morobe and elsewhere dying of preventable diseases like cholera.
In a country of plenty this is criminal neglect by authorities that be to cure and prevent such high mortality is also a paradox.
Many of our public hospitals are merely diagnostic centres because most medicines are never available thus patients end up at the pharmacies to purchase prescribed
medication or go without if they cannot afford them.
Our health system is supposed to be providing medical assistance affordable by any ordinary citizen of this country. The death toll reaching the hundred mark and over in
Morobe is message to us all that our government does not care. It is appalling, when lives are being lost while medical response teams are getting themselves organised when
they are supposed to be ever ready knowing that PNG is susceptible to many preventable and curable tropical diseases.
I think that apart from education and training, overall health system should take priority for funding over other specific expenditures.
Our health system is dysfunctional when priority of resource distribution is unfair at the expense of taxpayers and more so the rural people who need these services most.
I would like to see my taxes put into use for ordinary lie-loving citizens who do not choose to be sick, as in most incidences of HIV-AIDS which are contracted from freelance
sexual urges and exploits, but due to conditions and situations beyond their control. It is timely for the Government to look into the health system on a broader picture and
decide where resources are needed the most and distribute accordingly. And how about creating individual ministries to accommodate for all other major illnesses like malaria,
TB, cancer, etc in the country now that our health ministry is also a ministry of HIV and AIDS?

Onge Nufuk