The Sudan.....what a nightmare.
Posted on 01/21/2007 4:45:29 PM PST by DrGunsforHands
Meningitis outbreak kills 1,000 in south Sudan Sun 21 Jan 2007 7:47 AM ET
JUBA, Sudan, Jan 21 (Reuters) - At least 1,000 people have died in one week in south Sudan's Warap state from meningitis and another unknown disease, state governor Anthony Bol Madut said in a statement sent to Reuters on Sunday.
Emerging from Africa's longest civil war, south Sudan's infrastructure is almost non-existent and outbreaks of disease are frequent. A cholera outbreak last year killed 147 people.
"There is an outbreak of meningitis and (an) unknown disease spreading fast throughout the state and there is fear it may affect other neighbouring states," Madut's statement said.
He said the symptoms of the second disease were similar to yellow fever, but the patient died quickly. He appealed for medical experts to come to diagnose the disease and help stop the spread of the outbreak.
"Up to this time the death toll is over 1,000 this week alone," the statement said. "As I am writing this press release, I am expecting other death reports sooner or later."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
The WHO has only reported 231 cases of meningococcal meningitis (the bacterial kind-- worse than the viral type) and 16 deaths from it...
IT IS VERY STRANGE that I cannot get any info on symptoms, demographics of victims, or anything else through several sources from the "unknown" disease (except that it is similar to yellow fever: early phase is fever, muscle pain (with prominent backache), headache, shivers, loss of appetite, nausea and/or vomiting with late phase of hemmoragic fever)... These are my top 4 contenders (knowing nothing about the specifics)
1. Influenza (not bird flu, just influenza A or B carried by european doctors in the area)
Sorry to hear about your brother, processing
2. Dysentery
3. Acute Hepatitis
4. Another viral hemorraghic fever: marburg, ebola, etc.
The only one of these that has a glimmer of hope for resolution in an area like darfur is dysentery. Unless someone committs 100,000 IV bags and extensive containment, the other 3 are useless to even try to treat... imho
The Sudan.....what a nightmare.
Rachel Carlson and her ilk share responsibility for over 50 million deaths worldwide. Whenever liberalism reigns, millions die.
Yes it is.
Which makes this so ...well, I can't think of the adjective to use, maybe horrific or terrible or awful.
Africa has the natural resources to pull their people out of the poverty and ignorance but because of tribal warfare, dictators and other similar factors, they're doomed to keep up the status quo.
What a tragic image!
"Biggest Thug Takes All" is the name of the game. You see it played over and over again in most every country on the continent.
Isn't South Sudan where the Christians live that are constantly under attack by the Islamics (janjaweed et al?) Awfully strange: "unknown disease."
Meningitis can sweep through a heavily populated area, and kill a large population.
Maybe so, but typically Americans don't have to worry about catching Onchocerciasis (River Blindness), Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness), Schistosomiasis, Dengue fever, Ebola, or even Malaria. Poor nutrition and medical care are not the only reasons Africans are more likely to have these diseases. The fact is that these are tropical diseases. Americans, Europeans, and others in northern latitudes don't have to worry much about running into a rhinoceros or a lion either.
One vulture waiting to eat, one vulture taking a picture. I don't see how a human being could take this picture. How could a human not have to heart to sweep that baby into his arms and chase off the vulture that is only doing what nature tells it to do. WHERE DO THESE JOURNALISTS COME FROM???
"Look mommy I got a Pulizter!"
"Did you help that baby at all?"
No
"Good boy."
Sorry, that photo just drives me insane!
Actually, the journalist who took the picture was seriously criticized and a year and a half later, committed suicide.
His suicide note partially read "I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain ... of starving or wounded children"
Sounds like the Arabic version of Imperial Japan's 731 germ warfare unit..
I've felt like killing myself after too many meetings........
If ABC had it....would that make it more believable, or less?
Maybe he/she did after snapping the picture. I hope so.
I think the only comfort is that the photographer seems to have done all that he could do in the situation. He doesn't appear to have been a soulless or dishonest man, as some photojournalists are, and he really couldn't have saved her....he was in a hopeless situation without the resources he needed.
And the photograph has fostered a lot of good: people who might otherwise remain callus to the misery of the world tend to get a wake up call from a picture that horrible. Even if they can't do anything about it, the empathy created is a force for good.
And not the folks who are being starved to death along with all those poor little children.... ;o(
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