Tag Archives: World Health Organization

Hawaii Dealing with Rare Dengue Fever Outbreak

Health officials in Hawaii are currently investigating more than 100 cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness that experts say can lead to potentially lethal complications in rare cases.

The Hawaii Department of Health says on its website that there were 122 confirmed dengue cases as of Wednesday. The disease isn’t endemic (regularly found) in Hawaii, it says, but it can occasionally be brought in from someone who traveled to an endemic region and got infected.

However, the department indicates this is a cluster of people who contracted the disease locally.

It’s the first such outbreak since a 2011 cluster of cases in Oahu, the department says. According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention records, only five people fell ill in that outbreak.

This cluster is on Hawaii Island, the big one. CNN reported that CDC officials were traveling to the island on Wednesday and bringing specially designed mosquito traps to help catch the bugs.

Of the 122 confirmed cases, the health department says 106 are residents of the island and 16 were visiting. Ninety three were adults and 29 were children. They began falling ill between Sept. 11 and Nov. 24. No deaths have been reported, but the disease has been known to kill.

The World Health Organization (WHO), an arm of the United Nations, says dengue causes a flu-like illness and is traditionally found in the tropics and subtropics. But it says the disease has rapidly spread to new areas in recent years and roughly half the world’s population is at risk.

The disease is carried by certain types of mosquitos and transmitted to humans through bites. Symptoms can include a high fever, severe headaches, swollen glands and joint and muscle pain.

Dengue itself is seldom deadly, according to the WHO, but in some instances it can lead to severe dengue. That can cause respiratory distress, severe bleeding and organ impairment.

About 500,000 people (most of whom are children) need to be hospitalized for severe dengue treatment every year, according to the WHO, and approximately 2.5 percent of those who develop the disease die. Severe dengue has been a major issue in Asia and Latin America, the organization says, and is one of the top causes of hospitalization and death for children there.

The WHO says detecting the disease early enough and having access to medical care facilities drops the dengue mortality rate below 1 percent. The Hawaii Department of Health says it’s still safe to travel to the state, and a CDC official told CNN that the overall risk of getting infected is low because mosquitos in the United States have not been known to transmit the virus well.

German Radio Station Reports that German Intelligence Spied on Various Foreign Groups

Rbb-Inforadio, a public radio station in Germany, reported Wednesday that Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) spied on U.S. arms companies, the FBI, the U.N. Children’s Fund, and the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Fox News reports that the station claimed that the BND also spied on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the World Health Organization, and even a German diplomat. Last weekend, the same radio station reported that the BND was targeting email addresses and phone numbers of officials in Britain, France, the United States, Switzerland, Greece, the Vatican, other European countries, and even international aid groups like the Red Cross.

These allegations are very serious, especially in Germany. Two years ago, German officials reacted very angrily after finding out that the United States had been eavesdropping on German targets, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Merkel stated that “spying among friends, that’s just wrong.”

The radio station did provide a source for these allegations, and the German spy agency did not comment on the situation. Although, an investigation is underway.

“The facts behind these various press reports will be comprehensively investigated and of course the chancellery is involved in this investigation,” government spokeswoman, Christiane Wirtz, told Fox News. She also stated that Parliament’s intelligence oversight committees would be informed of the situation.

Ebola Setback in Sierra Leone

Officials in Sierra Leone admitted Thursday that 500 people have been placed under quarantine after a man died from Ebola in a part of the nation where the disease was believed to have been eradicated for months.

Hassan Abdul Sesay, a member of the Sierra Leone parliament, told reporters that the victim had contracted the virus in the capital city of Freetown and then brought it to his home village where he want to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A troubling aspect of the revelation of the outbreak was that the patient was not immediately diagnosed with Ebola and the national hotline for cases was not called until later in the disease’s progression.  The patient only presented a fever when they went to the hospital.

The victim’s entire home village and at least 30 medical professionals are part of the quarantine.

Authorities are also concerned because the victim’s father is a taxi driver who used his car to take his son to at least two hospitals.  The victim was also not buried using the special instructions to keep victims from spreading ebola after death.

The news of the quarantine was a black mark on an otherwise good week for news on the Ebola fight.  The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week that they have the lowest number of new Ebola cases in a year in West Africa.

Sierra Leone officials remain confident they will eradicate the disease despite the recent blow up.

“Sierra Leone is on the last lap to get to zero number of cases, and we are bringing in the Sierra Leone police and military to enforce the Ebola by-laws and get people to comply with the restrictions,” said retired Maj. Alfred Palo Conteh, head of the Ebola response centre.

Cuba Eliminates Mother-To-Child HIV Transmission

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Cuba is the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child.  The country is also the first to eliminate the transfer of syphilis.

WHO officials say that the discovery means an end to the AIDS epidemic is possible and they expect more nations to seek to reach the status where transmission is eliminated in their country.

“Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible,” Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, said in a Tuesday press release. “This is a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation.”

The WHO defines elimination as reduction to a level that it no longer constitutes a public health problem.  In 2013, only two babies were born in Cuba with HIV and only five with syphilis.

The WHO says that without treatment, a woman has up to a 45% risk of transmitting the virus to her child.  The WHO is currently undergoing a worldwide program to eliminate transmission but are struggling to meet their goal of only 40,000 infections in 2015.  The last reported total was 240,000 in 2013, a decrease of 160,000 from 2009.

Bird Flu Cases Hit 35 Countries

The World Organization for Animal Health says the bird flu outbreak that is currently killing millions of birds in the United States has impacted 35 countries around the world.

The major strain in the U.S. that has led to the deaths of 33 million birds since last December is H5N2.  The USDA is now admitting that the H5N8 strain of bird flu has also been found in the United States.

The OIE says that the H5N8 strain was discovered in Korea and China before moving to Japan.

“From there the strain probably spread with migratory wild birds to India, Europe, Canada and later the United States of America,” the OIE said in a statement.

The OIE has requested that the 180 member countries apply better biosecurity measures at farms, live bird markets and in trades.  They’ve also requested an increase in surveillance to try and stop outbreaks before they can infect more than one location.

The OIE added that while the main focus is on H5N2 and H5N8, the H5N1 virus that lead to a worldwide outbreak in 2004 and also infected humans is still out there.  The virus has most recently been found in Africa.

Nigeria, Senegal Declared Ebola Free

The long fight against the Ebola virus received very good news Tuesday when two African nations were declared free of the virus.

Nigeria and Senegal, who both combined had 20 cases of the virus and 7 deaths (all in Nigeria), have been free of any new cases for six weeks.

“This is a spectacular success story,” World Health Organization Representative Rui Gama Vaz told Reuters.  “It shows that Ebola can be contained, but we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola.”

The government of Nigeria was given praise considering the virus was discovered in Lagos, a city of 21 million where tracing contacts of residents can be almost impossible.

“Nigeria was not really prepared for the outbreak, but the swift response from the federal government, state governments (and) international organizations … was essential,” said Samuel Matoka, IFRC Ebola operations manager for Lagos.  “The swiftness and fastness of the reaction from all parties, helped to contain Ebola in Nigeria.”

The World Health Organization says Nigeria could be a model for nations around the world in dealing with Ebola.

CDC: Over 1.4 Million Could Have Ebola By 2015

The Centers for Disease Control is laying out the case for a very grim start to the new year.

The CDC says that as little as 550,000 and up to 1.4 million people could be infected with Ebola by the start of the new year if it is not contained.  The World Health Organization says that so far they only have 5,800 confirmed cases and 2,800 deaths, but admit there could be cases in rural areas that are not reported to health care officials.

The CDC report says that currently cases in Liberia are doubling every 15-20 days and doubling in Guinea & Sierra Leone every 30 to 40 days.

The CDC admits their scenario does not take into account the 3,000 troops and medical personnel that President Obama is sending to the region to attempt to control the spread of the killer virus.

The CDC also said that if 70 percent of patients are cared for in proper medical facilities the epidemic can be contained.

The WHO also released a report showing that 337 healthcare workers have been infected with the virus while helping victims and 181 of them have died.

WHO: Ebola Could Infect Over 20,000

The World Health Organization says the world’s largest historical outbreak of Ebola is likely to grow significantly bigger.

The WHO announced a $490 million dollar program to attempt to contain the virus and quell the outbreak.  Doctors said it would take nine months at a minimum to get the outbreak under control and that 20,000 people could be confirmed to have contracted the virus by that point.

However, the WHO doctors admitted the likely amount of patients already infected is two to four times as high as the 3,069 officially listed cases because of patients that contracted the disease and died in rural villages.

The fatality rate of 52 percent, which has resulted in 1,552 deaths as of August 26th, has brought the total almost as high as all previously recorded outbreaks of the virus since its discovery in 1976.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has announced an experimental Ebola vaccine is being pushed into human studies in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health.  If the results are good, they plan to send 10,000 doses immediately to infected countries.

Nigerian Doctor Now Infected With Ebola

The World Health Organization’s assurances that the Ebola virus would not spread from an American man who contracted the disease and then flew to Nigeria where he died has been shown to be false.

Nigerian health officials confirmed Monday that one of the doctors who was treating Patrick Sawyer as he died is now infected with the deadly virus.

Nigerian officials now say they’re doing all they can to track down health workers who had contact with Sawyer and also those who flew with him on the flight to Lagos, Nigeria.  Lagos is Nigeria’s most populous city.

Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu revealed that three other people have been showing signs of Ebola and are currently awaiting test results.

Authorities in Liberia ordered Monday for all the bodies of Ebola victims to be cremated in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading to family members at funerals or during transport to burial sites.

Doctors Without Borders says this is the first time Ebola has been able to entrench itself in major African cities.

Ebola Death Toll Tops 660; Leading Doctor Infected

The World Health Organization announced the record death toll from the West Africa Ebola outbreak has topped 660 with the total number of cases passing 1,000.

“This is a trend, an overall picture. It’s hard to get an exact picture on the scale of the situation at the moment,” WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told reporters.  “We’re providing additional support to hospitals and clinics, and we’re seeing that many of these facilities simply don’t have enough people to provide the constant level of care needed.”

The outbreak of the virus began in Guinea but now Sierra Leone has taken over as the most number of infected residents.  While Guinea still has the most deaths with 314 in 415 cases, Sierra Leone is quickly gaining at 219 deaths in 454 cases.

The battle against the disease also took a blow when the top doctor in Sierra Leone dealing with the virus became infected.

Sheik Umar Khan, 39, has treated more than 100 victims of the virus.  He had previously spoken of his worries about contracting the virus from working with so many patients.  Khan, considered one of Sierra Leone’s few experts on the disease, was rushed to a Doctors Without Borders facility for immediate treatment.

The containment of the disease is also threatened after the family of a victim forcibly removed from her quarantine.  Police and military officials are searching for her because she is loose in Freetown, a city of one million residents.