A
yellow fever outbreak in Angola has killed 37 people since December,
the country's national director of health Adelaide de Carvalho. Picture:
AFP/ Luis Robayo
February 12, 2016 - ANGOLA - A yellow fever outbreak in Angola has killed 37 people since
December with eight new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the
country's national director of health Adelaide de Carvalho said late on
Wednesday.
The outbreak of yellow fever, which is transmitted by
mosquito bites, began in the Luanda suburb of Viana but has spread to
other areas of the southern African country with 191 people infected so
far.
De Carvalho said health officials were monitoring suburbs
around the capital of Luanda where infections have been worsened by
unsanitary conditions caused by a garbage collection backlog.
“Actions should be developed for the improvement of public sanitary and garbage collection,” de Carvalho said.
Symptoms
of yellow fever include sudden fever, severe headache, nausea, vomiting
and fatigue, according to the Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention. - IOL.
December 3, 2015 - UNITED STATES - Thanks to Obama’s open border policies there are now hundreds of
thousands of cases of Chagas Disease in the United States today.
This tropical disease is extremely dangerous!
Chagas disease,
also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially
life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma
cruzi (T. cruzi). It is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin
American countries. The disease is transmitted to humans by contact with
feces of triatomine bugs, known as ‘kissing bugs.’
Chagas Disease
is spread by the Kissing Bug in Latin American countries. Chagas often
leads to a fatal condition known as Chagasic cardiomyopathy.
The National School for Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine released a list of facts on Chagas Disease. According
to this prestigious school of medicine there are an estimated 300,000
cases of Chagas disease in the United States today with a high level of
cases in Texas. The disease was mostly imported from Latin America.
• Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a serious infection caused by a parasitic microorganism, Trypanosoma cruzi, and is transmitted by kissing bugs.
• Chagas disease is a leading cause of heart disease resulting in a debilitating and often fatal condition known as Chagasic cardiomyopathy. One in six people with Chagasic cardiomyopathy will die within five years.
• An estimated 9 million people are infected in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in impoverished areas. According to the World Health Organization, the largest number of people living with Chagas disease are in poor areas of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, while Bolivia has the highest prevalence (percentage of people infected).
• The infection can be passed from mother to baby. There are an estimated 40,000 pregnant women in North America alone who have Chagas, and they will transmit the infection to their babies around 5 percent of the time.
• The CDC estimates that 300,000 cases occur in the United States, mostly imported from Latin America.
• Scientists at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor, including Drs. Kristy Murray and Melissa Nolan Garcia, have uncovered a previously unrecognized level of transmission in the state of Texas.
November 10, 2014 - UNITED STATES - The United States is being
infected by Chagas, a deadly disease spread by the feces of a parasite
nicknamed the “kissing bug.” It bites sleeping victims, ingests the
blood and defecates on them; patients then unknowingly rub the feces
into open membranes.
Chagas disease is seen as a “silent killer”
by those who study and treat it, as it can often lurk in people’s
bloodstreams for up to two decades before causing their organs to fail.
The initial stage of the tropical illness ‒ the acute phase ‒ is mostly
symptom-free and lasts for the first few weeks or months, according to
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If a patient does
exhibit symptoms, they can easily be mistaken for another disease.
The
symptoms noted by the patient can include fever, fatigue, body aches,
headache, rash, loss of appetite, diarrhea, and vomiting. The signs on
physical examination can include mild enlargement of the liver or
spleen, swollen glands, and local swelling (a chagoma) where the
parasite entered the body, the CDC explained.
Chagas called the new AIDS b/c of its asymptomatic beginnings that can turn to a fatal end if disease progresses pic.twitter.com/jqTawhRmk3
— slone (@slone) November 10, 2014
"People don't normally feel sick,"
Melissa Nolan Garcia, a research associate at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston and the lead author of two of three recently
published studies, explained in a statement, "so they don't seek
medical care, but it ultimately ends up causing heart disease in about
30 percent of those who are infected."
It is the second ‒ or
chronic‒ phase that is deadly. Patients can develop cardiac
complications, including an enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy), heart
failure, altered heart rate or rhythm, and cardiac arrest (sudden
death), as well as intestinal complications, such as an enlarged
esophagus (megaesophagus) or colon (megacolon) and can lead to
difficulties with eating or with passing stool.
WATCH: Tropical Medicine Research - Chagas Disease Study.
In
July, the Centers for Disease Control estimated that 300,000 people in
the US had been infected, and but now it could be closer to 400,000.
Medical research suggests that 40,000 pregnant North American women may
be infected with the disease at any given time, resulting in 2,000
congenital cases through mother-to-child transmission, according to Fox
News Latino. Garcia believes that the numbers may actually be higher
than that, the Examiner reported.
The Baylor team presented the
results of its work on Tuesday at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in New
Orleans. In one of their pilot studies, her team looked at 17 blood
donors in Texas who tested positive for the parasite that causes Chagas
disease. “The concerning thing is that majority of the
patients [I spoke to] are going to physicians, and the physicians are
telling them, ‘No you don’t have the disease’,” Garcia said, according to Al Jazeera America.
Chagas
disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a
protozoan parasite related to an African version that causes sleeping
sickness. It is endemic to Mexico, Central America, and South America,
where an estimated 8 million people have the illness, most of whom do
not know they are infected. If untreated, infection is lifelong and can
be life threatening, the CDC noted.
Garcia spoke to several groups
of physicians and cardiologists as part of an educational campaign to
increase physician awareness. “A lot of the cardiologists were
aware of Chagas disease, but they don’t make the connection when the
patient is sitting in front of them,” she said.
Dr.
Julie-Ann Crewalk, a pediatrician in Northern Virginia who has dealt
with Chagas, also thinks that the disease is being underdiagnosed. “It’s not something that we think of asking right away,” she told the Atlantic. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers were higher and we’re just not seeing it.”
The
CDC says that most of the Chagas cases in the US are from people who
have traveled to Latin America, and were infected there. But Garcia told
HealthDay News her research showed that the parasite has arrived in the
US, and the government agency has admitted that triatomine bugs can be
found across the lower half of the country.
"We are finding new evidence that locally acquired human transmission is occurring in Texas," she said. "We were surprised to find that 36 percent had evidence of being a locally acquired case.” “Additionally,
41 percent of this presumably healthy blood donor population had heart
abnormalities consistent with Chagas cardiac disease," Garcia
noted. The illness can also be spread through blood and organ donation,
as well as from mother to infant during childbirth.
The
disease is also growing just outside Washington, DC. While the number
of people with Chagas disease in Northern Virginia is small ‒ about two
dozen cases, according to interviews by the Atlantic with local
physicians ‒ doctors and experts there say they wouldn’t be surprised if
the numbers were higher because, along with the lack of routine
screening for it, many patients tend to be undocumented immigrants
without health insurance.
Dr. Rachel Marcus, a cardiologist,
believes Northern Virginia could be “ground zero” for Chagas disease,
because of the volume of immigrants from Bolivia, where the disease is
endemic. She told the Atlantic that it’s easy to diagnose the disease
with an electrocardiogram (EKG), but that American doctors don’t know
what they are looking for. “If you were to find that EKG from an area
where Chagas is common, it’s diagnostic,” she said.
Garcia also agreed with the need to focus on EKGs as a diagnostic tool for the disease. "Physicians
should consider Chagas when patients have swelling and enlargement of
the heart not caused by high blood pressure, diabetes or other causes,
even if they do not have a history of travel," she said.
But
even if the deadly disease is diagnosed, there are no viable
government-authorized treatments. The Food and Drug Administration has
not yet approved two medicines ‒ nifurtimox and benznidazole ‒ that are
currently used to treat the disease but carry a risk of nerve damage,
nausea and weight loss, according to the ASTMH statement.
The CDC makes the drugs available "when no satisfactory alternative treatment exists," according to the FDA, adding that "subjects
are generally willing to accept greater risks from test articles that
may treat life-threatening and debilitating illnesses." - RT.
November 16, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Startling reports of a new deadly virus infecting dogs have arisen in
the media in the past month. It's said to be highly contagious for dogs
and can kill them in just a few days. Currently, there's no viable
veterinary treatment available, because no one even knows entirely what
this is yet or how it spreads. Tests for it take weeks to get results,
to no avail for the pet who has it.
Strangely, it is confined to three states - California, Ohio and
Michigan. It was actually first detected in dogs in 2012. Although,
media reports such as one coming out of Arizona
seem confident that it will make its way across the United States,
undoubtedly causing panic for dog lovers everywhere. Symptoms include
severe intestinal inflammation, varying lethargy, weight loss, diarrhea
and vomiting.
For now, it is being labeled in dogs as circovirus
which is actually a name to describe the largely unknown small viruses
seen in other species. It is suspected that the infected dogs have
serious internal bleeding - major systems like the chest bleeding into
the abdomen and areas that lead to internally bleeding to death.
Veterinarians have known it to affect pigs - wiping out a hog farm in a
week. Pet birds, too - like parrots, parakeets and cockatiels - have
shown signs of this disease. But only now is the sudden arrival of
an interspecies jump to domesticated dogs.
A Cincinnati, Ohio kennel called The Pet Spot saw four dogs stricken ill. There are also reports coming from Ann Arbor and Detroit.
This is a major concern for the pet housing industry and perhaps animal
hospitals. But not all researchers are convinced about what it is or if
it should induce panic. In nearly 70% of animals tested with suspect
circovirus, they showed signs of other disease-states such as parvovirus. The American Veterinary Medical Association has released a FAQ to comfort pet owners.
Since this disease is just surfacing, solutions haven't been suggested
yet, but if it is as big of a public health threat as purported, one can
imagine some extreme measures. Reports show an emphasis on the lack of a
vaccine.
WATCH: Dangerous virus killing dogs.
Interspecies disease transmissions have been discovered before in some questionably creepy research studies involving
injection of the virus into the brain of another species. One
unsettling thought that I cannot shake is how strange it is for this
disease, seen in hogs, to suddenly appear in Michigan where the DNR is
dead-set on eradicating what it deems "invasive species" - i.e. domesticated heritage hogs that people rely on for pasture-raised meat.
Please consider helping your pet with holistic health to build its immunity. - Activist Post.
January 14, 2013 - CUBA - Uvaldo Pino was a neighbourhood barber in Cerro, one of the poorer and more overcrowded districts of Cuba's capital, Havana. In late December, the 46-year-old fell sick with vomiting and diarrhoea and died in hospital on 6 January. The barber's family say he had two separate tests and both came back positive - for cholera. "We don't know how he was infected," his sister, Yanisey Pino, told the BBC at the family's home, a few blocks from the capital's Revolution Square. "He was treated, he had all the medicine, but his organs didn't respond. It was too late." Yanisey added that her brother was a heavy drinker and had checked himself out of hospital the first time he was admitted. A week after Uvaldo's death, Cuba's health ministry has not yet made any public pronouncement. But there are increasing signs that the barber's case is not an isolated one.
'Dozens' of admissions
Doctors are now making door-to-door enquiries in Havana and anyone displaying possible cholera symptoms is being tested. Suspected cases are being sent to the Tropical Medicine Institute, the IPK. "All our wards are dealing with this issue - they are almost full," an IPK employee told the BBC by telephone, before saying she was not authorised to comment further. Another staff member, contacted later and also not authorised to speak to the media, said the IPK did not have any confirmed cases of cholera at this point. But Yanisey Pino says her brother was diagnosed with cholera both by his local hospital and the IPK. The day Uvaldo died, health workers visited the family where they live - in several cramped houses around a small yard. Relatives and neighbours were issued antibiotics as a precaution. The area has been disinfected and water samples were taken for testing. Meanwhile, nearby bars and cafeterias have been closed or instructed not to sell food or drink that is not pre-packed. Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, there are similar scenes. One resident, Yudermis, fell sick just before the New Year, along with four other relatives including her seven-year-old son. The family assumed they had food poisoning but Yudermis says her cousin then tested positive for cholera at their local clinic. "The health workers then came here asking questions, like if we had diarrhoea," she explains inside their rundown family home as her son, now fully recovered, plays nearby. "They sent us all to hospital by ambulance and the tests came back positive. "There were a lot of people at the IPK," Yudermis adds, describing dozens of admissions while she was being treated, and not all from her own district of Cerro. "I was in a bad way. It was frightening. But we're fine now." Before she fell sick, Yudermis had never even heard of cholera, which is rare in Cuba.
Uvaldo Pino died after being taken to
hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Cold grills
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes cholera as "extremely virulent". Carried by contaminated water or food, it causes severe dehydration through diarrhoea and can prove fatal if untreated. Until last summer, there had been no significant outbreak on the island since well before the revolution. But in July the health ministry confirmed that three people had died of cholera in the east of the country. A contaminated well was identified as the source. In Havana, Cuba's bustling and crowded capital and a key tourist centre, strict measures are in place to contain the latest suspected outbreak. "We can't sell anything that's not in sealed bottles until further notice and all food sales have been suspended," explains Tony, at the Cerro Moderno cafe, a short walk from the home of Yudermis. Its fridge is now empty and the grills cold. Local doctors confirmed this is standard procedure for several blocks around every location where someone tests positive for cholera. "If they take all the right measures, we'll be fine," Tony shrugs, adding that everyone has been given antibiotics as a precaution. "I took my pills straight away!" says Angel, as he buys cigarettes at the cafe. "I don't know what cholera is and I don't want to find out. People here are using chlorine and boiling their water. You have to take care."
Rumour mill
Pharmacies across the city are now selling water purification drops, rationed to two small bottles per person. But in the tourist heart of Old Havana, cafes and restaurants remain open and the streets are still full of mobile food and drink vendors. Most say they have heard rumours of a cholera outbreak in Cerro and are taking extra precautions, but none have received any official instructions. The WHO stresses "public communication" as a key tool in controlling any cholera outbreak. In Havana, that task has so far been left to local doctors who are very connected to their communities. But as rumours fill the information void, concern on the streets is growing. "I'm racking my brains trying to understand why there's nothing on TV about this," says Yanisey Pino, echoing many peoples' comments. "Why don't they say something? Inform people, like in other countries, so they're not afraid and can protect themselves! But there's no information at all." - BBC.
