Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

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Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aFfGIYJ06R.I

Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

By Jason McLure

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- At least 34 people died in Ethiopia following a suspected cholera outbreak, with more than 4,000 sickened in the capital, Addis Ababa, in the past two weeks.

The disease has infected as many as 1,000 people a day in the past week, Dadi Jima, deputy director of the state-owned Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute, said in an interview today. He declined to say the disease is cholera.

The government has not ?fully confirmed? the type of illness, Dadi said. ?We usually report it as acute watery diarrhea.? The spread of the disease has been exacerbated by heavy rains in the Horn of Africa country, he said.

Cholera, mainly spread through contaminated water and food and poor sanitation, causes acute diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to death. The illness is considered to be endemic in ?many countries? and the pathogen that causes the disease can?t currently be eliminated from the environment, according to the Web site of the World Health Organization.

The United Nations humanitarian agency said six cholera- treatment centers capable of treating 180 people a day have been dispatched to the country. The UN has also sent drugs for the treatment of more than 1,500 severe cases and 600 mild cases of acute water diarrhea, as well as water-purification tablets, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mailed statement.

Of the 34 who have died in Ethiopia, seven fatalities were in Addis Ababa, Dadi said. He didn?t provide figures for the number of people affected nationwide, adding only that the disease had been reported in 31 districts.

If untreated, cholera can kill a healthy adult in as little as five hours, according to the WHO.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

Source: http://gadaa.com/oduu/?p=768

Ethiopia: Cholera Outbreak in Addis Ababa

September 1, 2009 at 4:12 am

Gadaa.com
Dr. T. Adhanom

In February 2008, when Forbes.com ranked Addis Ababa (Finfinne), the 6th Dirtiest City in the World, since it faced ?one of the worst sanitation problems on both the continent of Africa as well as in the world,? authorities in Ethiopia looked the other way, and released pictures of Sheraton Addis and Hilton Addis to show how ?clean? the city was in the so-called ?image-building campaign? of theirs. Today, thousands are suffering from the cholera health crisis. There are also reports of cholera outbreaks in many parts of central and eastern Oromia. Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the Minister of Health, needs to take responsibility and contemplate about resigning for ignoring the early warning signs.


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VOA News: Thousands Felled by Diarrhea Outbreak in Ethiopian Capital

Health officials in Ethiopia?s capital, Addis Ababa are battling a severe outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhea. As many as 1,000 cases a day have been reported in the past week, and several people have died. Hospitals are erecting tents to handle the huge increase in patients turning up for treatment.

People have been lining up at hospitals around Addis Ababa for more than a week to get help. Ethiopia?s health ministry says 4,000 Acute Watery Diarrhea cases have been confirmed in the past 10 days, 300 in the most recent 24-hour reporting period.

Tent compounds have sprung up on the grounds of at least five hospitals in the capital to treat the unusually high case load.

The U.N. Humanitarian Affairs office issued a bulletin expressing extreme concern that some residents, particularly children, might be especially vulnerable to infection because of malnutrition.

Nationwide, estimates of people in need of emergency food aid have risen steadily in recent months to 6.2 million. The U.N. children?s agency reports it has dispatched 47 metric tons of ready-to-use therapeutic formula in a targeted feeding program in recent weeks, and more is on the way.

The U.S. embassy issued a warning to Americans in Addis Ababa last week of the increased risk of acute diarrheal illnesses, including Salmonella, Shigella and Cholera.

Dr. Daddi Jima, deputy director general of the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute says the outbreak has been diagnosed as AWD, not cholera.

?We usually report it as Acute Watery Diarrhea. We have never fully confirmed for any etiologic agents,? said Dr. Daddi Jima. ?Because we more focus on managing the cases, because the management of Acute Watery Diarrhea is similar. So we are focusing on managing the cases we have rather than going into the details of the specific causative agents.?

Dr. Daddi says Ethiopian health agencies have a sufficient supply of the antibiotic doxycyclIne, which is effective against AWD. But he cautions that the heavy rains that are normal in Addis Ababa this time of year play havoc with the public water system.

?AWD is endemic because of poor hygienic situation due to lack of enough water resource distribution, and low coverage of latrine use and the existence of the latrine is low, so because of this AWD happens every year in this country,? he said.

The latest U.N. humanitarian bulletin says the government and partner agencies have set up a central command center to scale up efforts to contain the AWD outbreak. Partner groups, including many health agencies are meeting twice daily to coordinate a response wherever a flare-up may occur.

Aid agencies also say critical water shortages are affecting other regions of Ethiopia. U.N. officials say a drought in the Somali region is being compounded by the migration of unusually large herds of livestock from other drought-hit areas in neighboring Somalia and Kenya.

? VOA News

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5860HJ20090907?sp=true

Cholera/diarrhoea outbreak hits 18,000 in Ethiopia
Mon Sep 7, 2009 3:54pm GMT

By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases have infected 18,000 people in Ethiopia over the last three weeks in many parts of the country, including the capital Addis Ababa, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The document -- minutes of a meeting attended by international health charities and U.N. agencies last Tuesday -- said half of moderate-to-severe cases of the 18,000 infections were cholera. It did not say how many were moderate-to-severe.

Most of the diarrhoeal illnesses that were not cholera were acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), health workers said.

"To date there are approximately 14,000 cases of AWD/Cholera (in the regions) and an additional 4,000 from Addis Ababa," the minutes of the meeting said.

Addis Ababa usually suffers less from diarrhoea epidemics than other parts of the country, but the city's health authorities are investigating the hygiene standards of hundreds of hotels and restaurants, according to local media.

Health workers, who declined to be named, told Reuters the fatality rate was 2 percent when the outbreak began but that it had been reduced as local and international agencies stepped up their response.

"The case fatality rate is falling as the response matures," the minutes of the meeting said. "The epidemic is now in its second phase, case load taking the form of a series of peaks over a protracted period."

Ethiopia's Health Ministry said last week that 34 people had died from AWD but it had not yet confirmed any cholera cases.

FESTIVAL FEARS

The government and international charities are distributing antibiotics and emergency treatment centres have been opened across the country -- including under tents in the grounds of several hospitals in the capital.

Cholera is caught from contaminated water and food and it causes extreme diarrhoea and vomiting. It can spread quickly and kill an adult in one day without help, but it is easily treated when caught in its early stages.

Aid agencies now fear a religious festival scheduled for this month will worsen the outbreak of AWD and cholera.

"The Meskel religious festival (is a) major cause for concern," the document said. "Up to 500,000 people are expected to gather for 10 days from 15-30 September with poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities."

The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its weekly bulletin for Ethiopia published on Monday that it was also concerned about the risk AWD will spread when schools re-open in mid-September.

The Horn of African nation -- that still uses an ancient calendar -- will also celebrate its new year on September 11 with thousands of revellers taking to the streets.

Some governments in Africa are often reluctant to admit to the presence of cholera for fear it could hamper agricultural exports and tourism.

 

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Re: Ethiopia Has Suspected Outbreak of Cholera; At Least 34 Dead

Source: http://www.msf.org.uk/articledetail.aspx?fId=ethiopia_diarrhoea_outbreak_20090917


Ethiopia: Diarrhoea outbreak decreases, but mass religious festival poses risk

Date Published: 17/09/2009 10:10

Almost 9,000 patients with acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have been treated in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and its surroundings since MSF medical teams and health authorities joined forces at the outset of the outbreak on 19th August.

Thousands of lives were saved due to a quick response and effective collaboration with health authorities, with 19 deaths out of 8,999 patients treated in the capital. Today, the outbreak is much less severe. From 700 admissions a day at the beginning of the outbreak, cases gradually decreased, stabilising at about 150-180 patients daily.

If left untreated, people with AWD risk becoming severely dehydrated and dying. While the most severe cases must be hospitalised and receive intravenous therapy, people who are moderately sick can be easily treated with oral rehydration salts (ORS).

MSF set up nine treatment facilities within public buildings throughout the city. Additionally, 27 ORS points allow medical staff to stabilise the more severe patients before they are transferred to one of the inpatient facilities, but also to treat those not requiring hospitalisation.

Despite the positive trend in the containment of the outbreak, the risk of a resurgence of this highly contagious disease remains, especially where there are large concentrations of people.

"Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are expected to attend the Meskel festival on 27th September," explains Karen Van den Brande, who coordinates MSF programs in Ethiopia. "We need to remain highly vigilant and prepared. MSF is part of a task force preparing to respond, helping authorities identify risk factors, in order to prevent a further outbreak during the religious festival."

Beyond Addis Ababa, MSF is also responding to AWD in two other regions: in Afar, in the north east, where more than 1,000 people have been treated since early July, and in Amhara region in the east.

Additional staff have been sent to Ethiopia to augment the MSF teams on the ground.