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Source: http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/55866/2010/01/22-093348-1.htm
MSF fears sleeping sickness epidemic in NE Congo
22 Feb 2010 09:33:00 GMT
Written by: Frank Nyakairu
NAIROBI (AlertNet) - Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that an outbreak of sleeping sickness in Democratic Republic of Congo's Haut-Uele province could become an epidemic, with more than 10,000 people suffering from the parasitic disease.
The symptoms of sleeping sickness, which is spread by tsetse flies, include confusion and poor coordination, as well as disturbance of the sleep cycle, which gives the disease its name. Without treatment, sleeping sickness is fatal.
The disease is only found in sub-Saharan Africa, most commonly in remote rural areas where health systems are weak or non-existent.
"We have discovered over 10,000 cases of sleeping sickness in Haut-Uele alone, which is now a hotspot in the region and risks turning into an epidemic," Antione Gauge, MSF's head of mission in the northeastern province, told AlertNet.
Sleeping sickness is common in central Africa, but Gauge said Haut-Uele's figures are much higher than in previous years, giving it the highest infection rate in the region.
"In some pockets, we have found 40 percent of the people infected, in some higher than that," he said in a telephone interview from Goma in eastern Congo.
Gauge described the situation as "critical", adding that infection rates needed to be reduced to 0.5 percent to bring the disease under control.
LIMITED ACCESS
Since 2008, insecurity and violence - exacerbated by military operations against the notorious Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - have forced MSF to shut down nearly all its activities in the area.
But the situation has eased a little as LRA rebels, who have killed over 1,000 civilians and uprooted 100,000 more in Congo in the last two years, have been pushed towards southeastern parts of Central African Republic, according to U.N. reports.
"It is very difficult but not impossible, because we have to move in the bushes using our mobile clinics to look for and screen communities," said Gauge.
After years of conflict, most of Congo's vast northeast is severely impoverished and there are very few roads.
Haut-Uele province neighbours Uganda and Southern Sudan, and has long experienced sporadic conflict and political tension. Gauge said movement by the affected population across borders raised the risk of reactivating sleeping sickness in historically cleared pockets.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 50,000 to 70,000 people are affected by the disease each year in 36 African countries, with seven states accounting for 97 percent of all reported cases. The most recent epidemic began in 1970.
According to the WHO, the disease had almost disappeared by the mid-1960s. But surveillance was then relaxed, and there was a resurgence in several areas. Recent efforts by the organisation, aid groups and national control programmes have stopped and begun to reverse the upward trend of new cases, the world body says.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
MSF fears sleeping sickness epidemic in NE Congo
22 Feb 2010 09:33:00 GMT
Written by: Frank Nyakairu
NAIROBI (AlertNet) - Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that an outbreak of sleeping sickness in Democratic Republic of Congo's Haut-Uele province could become an epidemic, with more than 10,000 people suffering from the parasitic disease.
The symptoms of sleeping sickness, which is spread by tsetse flies, include confusion and poor coordination, as well as disturbance of the sleep cycle, which gives the disease its name. Without treatment, sleeping sickness is fatal.
The disease is only found in sub-Saharan Africa, most commonly in remote rural areas where health systems are weak or non-existent.
"We have discovered over 10,000 cases of sleeping sickness in Haut-Uele alone, which is now a hotspot in the region and risks turning into an epidemic," Antione Gauge, MSF's head of mission in the northeastern province, told AlertNet.
Sleeping sickness is common in central Africa, but Gauge said Haut-Uele's figures are much higher than in previous years, giving it the highest infection rate in the region.
"In some pockets, we have found 40 percent of the people infected, in some higher than that," he said in a telephone interview from Goma in eastern Congo.
Gauge described the situation as "critical", adding that infection rates needed to be reduced to 0.5 percent to bring the disease under control.
LIMITED ACCESS
Since 2008, insecurity and violence - exacerbated by military operations against the notorious Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - have forced MSF to shut down nearly all its activities in the area.
But the situation has eased a little as LRA rebels, who have killed over 1,000 civilians and uprooted 100,000 more in Congo in the last two years, have been pushed towards southeastern parts of Central African Republic, according to U.N. reports.
"It is very difficult but not impossible, because we have to move in the bushes using our mobile clinics to look for and screen communities," said Gauge.
After years of conflict, most of Congo's vast northeast is severely impoverished and there are very few roads.
Haut-Uele province neighbours Uganda and Southern Sudan, and has long experienced sporadic conflict and political tension. Gauge said movement by the affected population across borders raised the risk of reactivating sleeping sickness in historically cleared pockets.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 50,000 to 70,000 people are affected by the disease each year in 36 African countries, with seven states accounting for 97 percent of all reported cases. The most recent epidemic began in 1970.
According to the WHO, the disease had almost disappeared by the mid-1960s. But surveillance was then relaxed, and there was a resurgence in several areas. Recent efforts by the organisation, aid groups and national control programmes have stopped and begun to reverse the upward trend of new cases, the world body says.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.