I hope this country never causes us problems, even the new and improved Pres. Bush will never be able to pronouunce the names! ;-)
Posted on 04/15/2002 8:45:02 AM PDT by ex-Texan
Death toll tops 1,000 in meningitis epidemic believed carried by Mecca pilgrims
By BRAHIMA OUEDRAOGO, Associated Press Writer
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso - Aid workers opened makeshift clinics in tents and schools Thursday, as hospitals overflowed with feverish victims of a meningitis strain reaching epidemic level for the first time in West Africa.
The death toll in the impoverished, desert nation of Burkina Faso topped 1,000, the Health Ministry reported.
"The situation is still worrying, because the number of victims is still going up," Health Minister Pierre Tapsoba said, touring one hospital treating meningitis patients in the capital, Oaugadougou.
The Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres set up cots under tarps and in classrooms, handing out medication to ill children and adults suffering in the heat and dust of the dry season, on the edge of the Sahara.
The epidemic has been linked to an outbreak among Islamic pilgrims traveling to the holy site of Mecca in 2000. The pilgrimage, or haj, is a duty of every Muslim who can reasonably make the trip.
"People sleep in close quarters when they're traveling to Mecca, and the virus was circulated among them," Iain Simpson of the World Health Organization (news - web sites) in Geneva said.
"People were coming back from haj with the infection," Simpson said.
The strain, W135, has existed for decades. It has not been known to reach epidemic levels until now, Simpson said.
As of Sunday, the latest date for which figures are available, the outbreak has killed 1,059 people in Burkina Faso since January, the Health Ministry said.
The government has recorded 8,846 total cases.
Simpson called the death rate comparatively low, and credited the aggressive treatment.
"There is some hope, because the structures and measures set up by the ministry to combat the disease are proving efficient," Tapsoba, the health minister, said. "The priority now is treatment."
Burkina Faso called off a massive vaccination program after it learned the strain was not one of the common forms of meningitis here.
Vaccines for the most prevalent kinds generally cost pennies a dose.
Vaccine for W135 cost up to dlrs 55 in the West — far too high a price for most Africans and African governments.
Additionally, because the strain has never posed such a threat, comparatively little vaccine has been made.
WHO workers in Burkina Faso say only 25,000 vaccine doses for W135 are stockpiled worldwide. Authorities are trying to get those for health workers, who must come in regular contact with the infected.
Burkina Faso appealed April 5 for international help fighting the epidemic.
The Islamic Development Bank has responded with dlrs 200,000, and the World Health Organization with dlrs 215,000. France, Italy, the Netherlands and UNICEF (news - web sites) contributed smaller amounts.
Meningitis, which causes inflammation of the brain, triggering headaches and fever, breaks out in the dry season each year in a broad band of countries across the middle of Africa. Sufferers blame the dust, sweeping in on the wind.
What is unusual this year is the strain — not the deaths. More common forms last year are blamed for 1,769 deaths in Burkina Faso; 4,363 in 1997.
Medical workers look to this year's epidemic too to ebb as the rainy season sets in.
The '"cause for concern is ... for next year," Simpson, the WHO spokesman, said. "It's cyclical, and we're trying to work out how to protect against the strain for next year."
That's really a shame. I suppose the answer is that we ought to give it away instead of these countries doing what they can to boost their economy.
And now we know why they will ALWAYS be poor.
That's why they (truly) are supposed to shave off all of their body hair to prevent lice (i'm not making this up!) when they go to Mecca.
It is only about 100 miles from Riyadh! Aieee!
Tell the royal family to hit bricks. Kill all of infected.
There is no money for medicine, only fine cloths, linens and tapestries... and some rugs.
Burn the corpses with gasoline, that way, they don't stink so much.
Sincerely,
The Royal Prince
However, I believe that people from other nations may also have this disease ....
I hope this country never causes us problems, even the new and improved Pres. Bush will never be able to pronouunce the names! ;-)
A headache is to a migraine, what a migraine is to meningitus.I would not wish that level of pain on anyone-except Bin Laden or Arafat types.
Beaten by reality again!
Another test...???
Another test...???
This looks to me like a natural outbreak of disease. It could be a test, of course, but I don't think there's any real evidence for what you're suggesting.
This meningitis outbreak gives the appearance of having started at the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in mid-March, 2000; large numbers of people were housed there under cramped conditions. They were typically vaccinated against other strains of menigitis, but not against W135. There were several instances of meningitis (the W135 type) in other parts of the world among people who had been in Mecca in March, 2000, and among their contacts. This Burkina Faso outbreak looks like a continuation of this outbreak that started in Mecca in March, 2000; however, there isn't yet any definitive proof of that in terms of detailed analysis of the strain.
It is true that one report in 1999 said that Saddam Hussein was planning to test a biological weapon in a third world country. But this was supposed to be a virulent strain of West Nile virus, and it never materialized. (Of course, there was the strange West Nile virus outbreak in New York shortly after this report about Saddam Hussein; but that wasn't especially virulent, and it wasn't in a third world country.)
Ain't that a crying shame?
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