8/9/09; (2 Items)
The number of deaths from the Menyamya outbreak has reached 101 with two more deaths reported at Ekwange, medical co-ordinator of the relief effort Micah Yawing said last night. Solomon Bomo an officer in charge of Menyamya district, yesterday returned from Kwaplalim sub health centre on the border of Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces with very bad news. According to Mr Bomo 10 people died yesterday at Vailala in Obura Wonenara in the Eastern Highlands. One of the saddest moments he witnessed was that of a young baby girl. The baby was taken by relatives from her dying mother in Vailala to save her life. A medical team was on its way to Kwaplalim yesterday. A helicopter was being organised to airlift a team to Vailala. Meanwhile, reports from Asakumdi say the outbreak has reached frightening proportions with even animals affected. A man from that villages said pigs were affected and had swollen faces.
See: http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/tuhome.htm
Seafood cited as cholera link
Franco Nebas; 8/9/09
Local health authorities in Tewai/Siassi district in Morobe Province have suspected that cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish. District health admini-strator Tureng Tamba said cholera had never reached Papua New Guinea but the risk to PNG was mainly from border crossers from the Indonesian border area. He said however, cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish, from a port where foreign vessels have discharged waste or ballast. “In our situation, the villages affected were people living along the coast where they mainly rely on fishing,” he said. He said that the villagers may have contracted cholera after eating shellfish that may have fed on human waste discharged from a passing foreign vessel from an infected person.
See: http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090908/tuhome.htm