 Health
Alerts at ArabMedicare.com is an open
access service that is designed to provide
a health surveillance infrastructure via the Internet for collecting and disseminating information
to healthcare professionals about various health threats to Arab countries.
The service will help strengthen local health
departments and their links to critical health care organizations, such as
hospitals, medical laboratories, Medical
Emergency Services, environmental agencies, school health services, public safety,
armed forces medical units, civil defence & national security agencies, and other related organizations.
Alert
Update
Yemen: Poliomyelitis in Yemen
25 April 2005
On 20 April, four polio cases due to wild
poliovirus type 1 were confirmed in Yemen. The cases were reported from
Hudeida governorate in south-west Yemen, on the Red Sea coast. Prior to
these cases, wild poliovirus has not been found in Yemen since AFP
surveillance commenced in 1996.
Situation
On 4 April WHO Yemen was informed by
Hudeida governorate health authorities of a cluster of acute flaccid
paralysis (AFP) cases in children, the first cases of which had occurred
in February 2005. The cases had been detected through AFP surveillance
activities and investigated, including collection of stool specimens for
laboratory investigation.
On 18 April, in close coordination with
local health authorities, two teams of WHO and Ministry of Health experts,
including epidemiologists and paediatricians, were dispatched to Hudeida
governorate to further investigate the cluster of AFP cases.
On 20 April, results of testing of stool
specimens of four of the cases by the polio network laboratory in Oman
revealed wild poliovirus type 1. The laboratory and field investigation of
other AFP cases is ongoing, and additional information will be made public
as soon as it is available, including genetic information which will help
identify the origin of the wild poliovirus responsible for the cases.
WHO Response
Yemen already conducted a nationwide
immunization campaign on 13-15 April, to immunize all of the country's 4.5
million children under the age of five years. WHO is working with the
Ministry of Health in Yemen to plan for further intensive house-to-house
immunization activities in the immediate geographic vicinity of the cases.
Planning for the next nationwide immunization campaign to be conducted in
the second half of May is being intensified. Contingency plans for a
potential third campaign in June are being discussed. Additional technical
support is being provided for the continuing investigation and for
planning for immunization rounds.
WHO is working with the Ministry of Health
in Yemen to ensure that AFP surveillance throughout the country is
sensitized so that no transmission of wild poliovirus is missed.
Additionally, Ministries of Health of neighbouring countries have been
informed.
Source: WHO
SUDAN: UN officials gather to discuss strategy to combat polio epidemic in Sudan
Sudan, Health, ArabicNews.com 12/25/2004
United Nations officials held an emergency meeting Thursday in Khartoum to discuss to how to contain a polio epidemic in Sudan, where reports of 79 new cases have led to fears that the sometimes fatal disease could soon spread to other countries in the region.
Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the meeting of the UN's country team that if the outbreak is not stopped rapidly, then restrictions may have to be introduced on the movement of people in the infected countries.
WHO and UNICEF will also conduct a polio vaccination campaign across the whole of the country next month, the UN Advance Mission in Sudan
(UNAMIS) reported.
Sudan had been polio-free for several years but the disease has spread across at least 10 nations in Africa this year after vaccinations in some states of northern Nigeria were suspended in mid-2003 amid concerns from local religious leaders about the safety of the oral vaccine. Those concerns were later proven to be baseless and the vaccinations have resumed.
SAUDI
ARABIA: Rift Valley Fever Outbreak
7
September 2004, Jeddah — Agriculture Minister Dr. Fahd Balghaneim
has called on cattle owners and breeders in the southern Jizan region of
Saudi Arabia to take precautionary measures against Rift Valley Fever
after reports that five animals in the region had tested positive for the
deadly virus. The RVF outbreak in Jizan killed more than 125 people three
years ago.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Obesity Survey
7 September 2004 - A UAE survey recently conducted by Hoffmann-La Roche
has revealed that over 70 per cent of the people surveyed (a random sample of 303 people) considered themselves overweight. Over 50 per cent
of the survey participants agreed that the most negative impact of being overweight is the detrimental effect it has on health, wellness and energy.
Obesity is at epidemic levels among the populations of the GCC countries
(Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates).
SUDAN: Outbreak of New Ebola Strain
As
of 24 May 2004, the health authorities of Yambio County have reported a
total of 19 cases, including 4 deaths, of Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF)
in Yambio, Western Equatoria, south Sudan. Laboratory testing performed by
the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and by the Centers for
Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) United States have confirmed EHF.
Additional updates to follow soon.
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