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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Hunt who wrote (10979)	11/25/2001 4:23:38 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Hi John. Awful disease,Wonder if there will be an attempt to blame someone for this? Deadly polio resurfaces in Afghanistan. Sunday November 25, 2001 By Naveed Ahmad ISLAMABAD: As if killer falciparum malaria was not enough during the current crisis, deadly polio has resurfaced in Afghanistan while the disease hardly has existence elsewhere on the planet. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed deaths of two children from polio in Laghman province of Afghanistan. WHO Spokesperson Haieber Girardet said: "These cases are especially alarming because they are the first cases outside the southern region of Afghanistan. Nine polio cases were found earlier this year -- all in the southern region." She said the first new case was reported from Paktia contracted by a nine-month-old girl while the second case involved an 11-month-old girl in Nangrahar province. "We know the onset of the disease was 20th of October, but further investigation was delayed due to insecurity. The case in Nangrahar province is especially worrisome because this type of polio is known as P3 polio, which WHO believed was eradicated in Afghanistan." She recalled that the last reported case was in October of 2000. "WHO is investigating whether these polio cases may be due to displacement of the population," said the UN agency official. At the same time, falciparum malaria has claimed the lives of 24 Afghans including 20 children in Laghman province. WHO spokesperson said: "We have just received reports from additional deaths due to the outbreak of falciparum malaria in Laghman province in October. The report is from Mehterlam hospital which said out of the 24 deaths, 20 of the cases were children." She noted: "It appears they arrived too late at the hospital to receive treatment." Falciparum malaria enters liver through blood and damages liver cells. Initially the virus causes fever and jaundice. Due to lack of proper treatment and nutrition, a child, obvious victims and most vulnerable prey, may die within 5 days. The most threatening aspect of the disease is that a mosquito carrying infected blood can transmit the disease to another person. Falciparum malaria produces a fever, which rises steadily and rapidly until the victim looses consciousness. The body temperature continues to rise, and death commonly results from brain damage. Falciparum (cerebral) malaria gives symptoms such as irritability, memory loss, rage, sleeplessness, tendency toward violence, flashbacks, etc. Since the disease outbreak warning in early October, the UN agencies started taking preventive measures and over 10,000 bed nets and insecticides are being distributed amongst the people so far. The season of transmission of malaria is over but "some cases from early in the season will have a relapse because there were adequate drugs supplies in place to treat falciparum malaria at that time," said the WHO official. WHO is preparing to send emergency health supplies to Spin Boldak. This follows an initial assessment at three camps in Spin Boldak that revealed inadequate medicines to treat the displaced population. The spokesperson said: "The main health concerns in the camps are acute respiratory diseases, diarrhoea, which is especially dangerous for children, tuberculosis and malnutrition. Basic sanitation is lacking, posing a serious health threat. There are inadequate water supplies." She also noted dust, wind and cold to have a dire impact on the health of the displaced population. jang-group.com