India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

[hawkeye]

No explanation as to what it is...but it's not smallpox?

India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

India Friday termed the West Bengal's alert over return of smallpox, 30 years after it was eradicated from the global map, as a false alarm.

The West Bengal government Thursday had issued a warning in all its districts along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. West Bengal Director of Health Services Sanchita Bakshi said border security agencies have been asked to monitor if anyone is entering India with fever and rashes, one of the symptoms of the disease.

'There is no need to panic as this is a false alarm,' Health Secretary Naresh Dayal told reporters in New Delhi.

Dayal said, his ministry had interacted with the World Health Organisation (WHO), which assured them that there is no outbreak of smallpox either in Bangladesh or Myanmar.

Authorities in the health ministry said the whole scare germinated after a message from the government to a few border states about a possible outbreak of smallpox in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Cherian Varghese, a senior health coordinator of WHO-India, said that vigilance is always good but there is no such outbreak in Bangladesh. 'We have no knowledge of it. Neither people nor authorities should not worry,' he told IANS.

West Bengal government meanwhile informed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport authorities about the reported danger and asked to screen the passengers arriving from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

State health department sources said any passenger arriving with fever and rashes from these two countries would be quarantined and tested.

A high alert has been sounded in the Indo-Bangladesh border districts. [However, Bangladesh authorities have not yet confirmed any case of smallpox and said they have been investigating the situation.

Smallpox is a contagious human disease, which is believed to have been eradicated from India over three decades ago. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India a smallpox free country in 1977. The last case of smallpox in India was reported in May 1975 in Bihar when around 1,400 people were infected.

Smallpox is caused by the attack of two types of viral strains - variola major and variola minor. The early symptoms of the disease are high temperature, body ache and headache. In a few days, red spots appear in the mouth and tongue and break open into sores. Later the spots become fluid-filled bumps that turn into pustules.

 

[hawkeye]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

Chicken pox strikes state capital
1 Jun, 2007 l 0435 hrs ISTlMadhuri Kumar/TIMES NEWS NETWORK

PATNA: Chicken pox, one of the most easily communicable diseases, has spread in certain parts of the city once again.

About 20 persons, including children, have been hit by the disease in Kurji and Dujra localities here during the last fortnight.

Normally, this disease strikes during early childhood or during adolescent stage. Few people know that if the disease occurs in old age, it can lead to extreme proportions and can cause a lot of complications.

Quite unlike its sister disease small pox, which has already been eradicated worldwide, chicken pox hasn't been eradicated yet and almost everyone is at a risk of getting infected, says paediatrician and IMA, Bihar unit, secretary Dr Arun Kumar Thakur.

The claim for eradication of chicken pox is baseless as every year, during this season, sporadic cases are reported. "Even this year, I get two or three cases of chicken pox every week," said Thakur.

Talking about the reason behind the outbreak of the disease in a particular locality, Dr Thakur says: "In densely populated localities, the probability of contracting the disease is high."

When asked about the treatment, Dr Thakur said: "Because chicken pox is usually a benign, self-limited disease, treatment is typically aimed at treating symptoms and making the patient more comfortable. In some cases, the anti-viral medication Acyclovir (Zovirax) may be used to treat chicken pox."

"In uncomplicated cases, Acyclovir has been shown to cause shorter periods of new lesion formation, but more rapid healing, provided the treatment starts within 24 to 48 hours of the onset of the rash," Dr Thakur added.

And how effective is the Varicella vaccine administered to prevent chicken pox, physician Dr PK Verma says: "No vaccine is 100% effective in preventing the disease. For chicken pox vaccine, about 8 to 9 out of every 10 people who are vaccinated are completely protected. The vaccine almost always prevents severity of the disease. If a vaccinated person does get chicken pox, it is usually a very mild case with fewer skin lesions (usually less than 50) lasting only a few days, no fever or a low fever, and few other symptoms."

Patna civil surgeon Dr Pranav Kumar said that he was not aware of any such outbreak of the disease. The civil surgeon also said he would send a medical team to the areas concerned to make an on-the-spot review.

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

No pox outbreak!
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, June 1: Rumours of an outbreak of small pox in Bangladesh and Myanmar which threw West Bengal health services into a panic are false, the WHO and the Government of India said today ~ yet the state health department says it is sticking to its guns as it is yet to hear from the Centre.
“There is no need for panic. It is a false alarm,” Health Secretary Naresh Dayal told reporters.
WHO officials said the suspected cases of small pox had been verified and turned out to be measles.
Ms Shima Roy in the WHO’s Delhi office told The Statesman the rumours originated from the report of a health worker in Bangladesh near the Myanmar border who registered a case of possible small pox or measles.
She said: “The information was verified by the WHO offices in both Myanmar and Bangladesh and it has been confirmed it is not small pox. There have been cases of polio and measles in the area. The last case of smallpox in Bangladesh was in 1976.” She added there are many diseases that may cause a rashes and can be easily mistaken for small pox. Smallpox was eradicated globally in 1979. However, Dr Sanchita Baksi, director of West Bengal health services, said she would not withdraw the warning issued to border districts yesterday as she claimed there is still uncertainty about the cases in Bangladesh.
She said: “The Centre has informed us that the cases in Myanmar are not small pox but the cases in Bangladesh are yet to be confirmed. We asked the Centre to send this in writing, they refused to do so saying until WHO sends a report, they can’t send anything in writing. As a result, we are not withdrawing the caution notice already circulated to the Bangladesh bordering districts.”
Meanwhile, the scare prompted state health department officials to frantically surf the internet and leaf through old medicine books to find out about the disease. A senior official at Swasthya Bhavan said: “After smallpox was eradicated we weren’t taught about it. Now we have been warned it could reappear we have had to turn to old medicine books or the internet to find out about signs.” :tiphat:

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=158035

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

I think they are looking for something to cross the border.

 

[hawkeye]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

I think you're right. Thanks for the update.

 

[Thornton]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

The committtee has no reports through their channels for smallpox. Details of case investigation not provided. - JT

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata/WHO_allays_smallpox_fears/articleshow/2093249.cms

WHO allays smallpox fears
2 Jun, 2007 l 0242 hrs IST l TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: World Health Organisation (WHO) told the Union health ministry that the supposed outbreak of smallpox in Bangladesh were simple cases of measles.

The assurance, that puts to rest global fears of a smallpox resurgence, was made at a high-level meeting between Salim Habayeb, WHO chief in India, Union health secretary Naresh Dayal and National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) chief Shiv Lal on Thursday night
?.
After receiving an alert from the High Commission in Dhaka, we informed the border states," said M K Singh, MEA eastern region director.
Mishra said he has contacted the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta for confirmation
??
?I refuse to believe Thursday's cases had anything to do with smallpox. There are many diseases with similar symptoms," said professor Subrata Chakraborty of the Institute of Child Health. "Nobody should panic before CDC confirms it as small pox," he added.

 

[Treyfish]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

<TABLE style="FONT-SIZE: xx-small; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WHO denies reports on smallpox outbreak [/FONT]</TD></TR><TR><TD>Sunday, June 03,2007 </TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE style="FONT-SIZE: xx-small; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%">[SIZE=-1]DHAKA: Following Indian newspaper reports of sudden outbreak of smallpox in Bangladesh and Myanmar border areas, World Health Organisation (WHO) has generated feverish activity among the health workers in the country although not a single patient has been found in last three days' search.
The West Bengal government has even issued a smallpox alert throughout the border, a report says.

On information from regional WHO officials in New Delhi, the WHO country office in Bangladesh is searching with the help of the health workers of Expanded Immunisation Programme (EIP) in the remote areas of the country.

"So far we can say that it is just a rumour. We have found nothing in last three days but our search is going on," said Dr Biwas MK Zaman, national professional officer (Epidemiology) of WHO.

If the matter is found to be true it would be a big incident for the world as the last case of smallpox was found in 1977, he said.

In Bangladesh the last case of smallpox was reported in 1975. WHO announced total eradication of smallpox from nature in 1977 and they stopped their worldwide smallpox vaccination programme in 1982. Smallpox killed some 300 to 500 million people in the 20th century.


Right now no country including Bangladesh has the smallpox vaccine in their stock, WHO sources said, adding that the laboratory of WHO head office has the germ to develop the vaccine again.

"If we find a case right now we would quarantine the patient," Dr MK Zaman said.

According to the recent reports published in several newspapers in India, smallpox and measles have been spreading among children in Burma-Bangladesh border areas. Local health workers said many children in Maungdaw township of Myanmar are now suffering from the diseases, which broke out in the area at the beginning of last month.

Indian media reports from border town Nila in Teknaf stated that many children in the area are suffering from smallpox and measles.


Bengali newspaper Anandabazar reports the sudden outbreak of smallpox in Rajshahi also.

The WHO officials said that they have been monitoring the situation since last Thursday.

"Our health workers have conducted extensive search at Nila in Teknaf but they did not find anything. We are also keeping in touch with the WHO office in Myanmar, they would inform us if they find any case," said Dr MK Zaman.


Meanwhile, Kolkata Newsonline put up news on May 31 that the state government has issued smallpox alert throughout West Bengal after receiving preliminary unconfirmed reports of the disease from areas bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar. The chief medical officers in all the districts, especially those bordering Bangladesh, have been alerted and asked by the state health department to be on the lookout for the symptoms of the disease. :tiphat:

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http://www.southasianmedia.net/cnn.cfm?id=394039&category=Social Sectors&Country=BANGLADESH</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[Thornton]

Re: India Says False Alarm, Bengal On Alert Over Smallpox

Even though this is a duplicate post, I am providing it here for field worker reference.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=83974#post83974

Surveillance Protocol for Undifferentiated Pustular / Vesicular Rash Illness

This 20 page document was produced by the CDC to assist clinical field workers to make accurate diagnosis and to guide immediate, necessary actions for illnesses presenting with pustular / vesicular rash and fever.

The differential diagnosis includes: chickenpox, impetigo, measles, monekypox, shingles, yaws and smallpox.

Note the document begins with a detailed clinical background on smallpox and its recognition and protective actions.

The web link is:
http://www.wvdhhr.org/idep/pdfs/idep/Rash_Illness/rash.pdf
jt