H5N1

India: A doctor's view of dengue

Via The Hindu, an op-ed by Dr. P. Durai: Danger from dengue. Excerpt:

Some time ago, I received a weeping call from my sister. In a choked voice, she said that her nine-year-old kid had been admitted to a private nursing home and a provisional diagnosis of dengue was made by the consultant paediatrician based on clinical symptoms. Worried, I called up my paediatrician-friend to garner more information about the disease, and its recent outbreak, especially in Tamil Nadu. 

I was startled at the revelation that a large number of deaths due to dengue/dengue haemorraghic fever (DHF) occur every year but many cases go unnotified. This can be attributed partly to the health care facility fearing unnecessary queries and partly to the public health authorities' reluctance to register cases. 

Every year, after the onset of monsoon the incidence of dengue is annoyingly high, but the Public Health Department fails to acknowledge it until there is intense public outrage and agitation after the death of a child/patient. Under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, fogging/focal spray should be carried out within a 100-metre radius of residence and the workplace of the patient, that too only if a dengue fever case is confirmed by a serological test (a blood test). 

Spraying operations are not efficacious, owing to the increased resistance offered by the winged vectors. 

Records show only a very small number of reported cases, though the actual incidence is disturbingly high. This is attributable to the fact that the department takes into account only confirmed cases. How can one expect the figures to escalate in the records when most of the government hospitals are lacking diagnostic kits?

Haiti: Cholera down in Port-au-Prince

Via Le Nouvelliste, a report dated May 31: Cholera down in the metropolitan area. A slightly edited Google translation from French:

This week the cholera treatment centers (CTC) of the metropolitan area, particularly those of Martissant, Carrefour and Delmas have received fewer cases than in previous weeks. 

Last April, the MSF treatment center in Martissant was saturated, whereas this Wednesday, May 30 around 10 am, 17 of the 82 beds at this hospital were vacant, according to Javier Fernandez, MSF project coordinator in Martissant 25. 

Delmas has 51 beds occupied out of 77 and 96 out of 250 are occupied in Carrefour. This decrease was due to the lack of rain on the capital in recent days. Since mid-April, this is the first time that the numbers have falln so low, according to the coordinator. 

However, the situation is still worrying. "The numbers are still enormous," he said. According to the latter, the conditions are still conducive to cholera. "With more rain, we can expect a further rise in the deadly epidemic," he expected. 

A survey by the National Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA), recently cited by MSF in a statement showed that less than a third of the displaced from the earthquake of January 2010 are still supplied with water and 1% have recently received soap. 

The last official assessment dated May 24, 2012 reported 7,188 deaths, 547,011 cases and 294,036 hospitalizations seen.

Haiti's lack of capable journalists

Via Time.com, an article that explains a lot about the dismal coverage of cholera and other health problems: Haiti Can't "Build Back Better" Without Better Journalists. Excerpt:

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Some post-quake international donor aid was earmarked for the media sector. The Haitian government in 2010 announced a $5.6 million plan to rescue more than a hundred media outlets, including replacement of destroyed equipment like presses and transmitters and the reconstruction of some 15 facilities. 

But according to government documents, virtually all of it went to the largest media owners who enjoy the most clout and personal relationships with high-ranking officials, even if they didn’t need it. Smaller media, including community radio stations, didn’t get a dime. 

Granted, every airwave in Port-au-Prince is taken today, and advertising appears to be keeping most of the capital’s 50-plus radio stations afloat. Even the country’s only daily newspaper,  Le Nouvelliste, is up and running again, albeit at a circulation 20% lower than the 14,000 readers it had pre-quake, which for a nation of 10 million people is quite low. 

But if the plan was to help nurture a more professional media culture, it has failed miserably. In fact, the same big media owners who cornered the international aid and gave lip service to “capacity-building” are now the very people arguing that investigative pieces are too expensive, too time-consuming – and too dangerous. 

Millions of dollars from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) did go to develop a local branch of Internews, a California-based non-profit agency that trains and supports journalists in the developing world. But Internews’ information focus is more humanitarian than investigative – its Haitian journalists, for example, are not allowed to cover anything political. 

Meanwhile, international NGOs have lured Haitian journalists away to well-paying public relations work since the earthquake. Like Internews, they offer the higher salaries Haitians want – but not the opportunity to report the harder news their country needs. 

A real Fourth Estate in Haiti, as a result, hasn’t stood a chance. And even if Haitian media outlets did want to encourage investigative work, few Haitians are well trained enough to carry it out. (Nor do they have much institutional memory to guide them: respected late-20th-century Haitian journalists like Jean Dominique, who was murdered in 2000, have either left the country or the profession.) 

Journalistic methods like requesting public records – especially land titles, which are often at the heart of disputes over where to relocate the hundreds of thousands of Haitians still left homeless by the earthquake – are as foreign to most Haitian reporters as the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Turks and Caicos: Tourist died of heart attack, not mystery virus

Via The Turks and Caicos Sun: Tourist died of heart attack. Excerpt:

Autopsy ruled out death from the mystery sickness in Grace Bay 

The male visitor to the Turks and Caicos Islands who was found dead in his hotel room at the Grace Bay Club, died of a heart attack and not as a result of the mysterious sickness that has affected at least a dozen hotels in Grace Bay, on the island of Providenciales. 

Reliable sources told the SUN that visitor, whose name has been given as Steve Ware, suffered from “acute myocardial infarction” or a heart attack.

Most depressing public health news of the day

Via Gallup.com: In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins. Excerpt:

Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God's guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.

So much for the efficacy of public education, and for any public health programs based on science.

Ghana: PPP to focus on malaria, cholera eradication

Via Joy Online: PPP to focus on Malaria, Cholera eradication. Excerpt:

The Progressive People's Party (PPP), Thursday, laid down its health blue print with eradication of malaria and cholera as its key focus in its first term of office. 

It said alongside the eradication of the two diseases, the party would empower institutions to place more premiums on preventive measures supported by control treatment and bring back sanitary inspectors to enforce the law. 

“The PPP led government will solve the problems we have by restoring the state’s responsibility for clean and healthy environment throughout Ghana. What is required is a militant approach, strengthening of institutions and a sense of urgency to combat these diseases,” it stated. 

Presenting the PPP’s health policy on the theme: “Eradicating Preventable Disease” at a media briefing in Accra Thursday, the spokesperson, Dr Theophilus Kwofie, said the problem Ghana faced as far as preventable diseases was concerned was the lack of proper sanitation, which he said the current administration lacked the initiative to deal with. 

“These diseases, as the PPP understands, are diseases of poverty and cause of poverty. We recognise that the country sits on a time bomb till unwavering commitments are garnered by all stakeholders to convincingly alleviate the disease from the economy,’’ he said. 

Some of the party bigwigs who graced the occasion were the chairman of PPP, Nii Alotey Brew-Hammond, the General Secretary, Mr Kofi Siaw, Director of Communication, Mr Richmond Keelson, a member of the communication team, Mr Samuel K. Ampah and some of the Greater Accra Regional Parliamentary Candidates. 

Dr Kwofie who is also PPP’s chairman of the Ashanti Region said one key way of dealing with the menace was to solve the problem of water supply to ensure clean water for every household and investment into public houses in order to do away with the slums.

Central Vietnam skin condition kills woman, raises toll to 23

Via Thanh Nien Daily: Central Vietnam skin condition kills woman, raises toll to 23.

A mysterious skin condition plaguing Ba To District in the central province of Quang Ngai claimed another life Wednesday morning, two days after a young boy from the district died of the condition in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Pham Thi Trieu, 33, died at Quang Ngai General Hospital despite three blood transfusions, raising the death toll to 23 since the first case was reported in April last year. 

On Sunday night, 9-year-old Pham Van Thach died after eight days at HCMC Children’s Hospital No.1. Le Huy, chief of staff at the Quang Ngai Health Department, said three more Ba To children with the condition have been sent to HCMC Children’s Hospital No.2, ages 5, 6, and 14. 

The condition begins with blisters on the hands and feet and loss of appetite, and then becomes fatal due to organ failures, starting with the liver. 

Most patients have had enzyme levels 4-20 times the norm. At least 214 people from the district have the condition. 

The Heath Ministry has sent officials to study Ba To several times, but no conclusions have been released. 

The World Health Organization said it has not received an official request for help from the ministry.

Guangdong on alert after Hong Kong bird flu case

Via Xinhua: Guangdong on alert after Hong Kong bird flu case - Xinhua. Excerpt:

South China's Guangdong province is on high alert after a Hong Kong hospital confirmed that it has admitted a two-year-old boy infected with the H5 strain of avian influenza. 

The boy was admitted to a Hong Kong hospital on May 28 with convulsions after arriving from Guangdong's capital city of Guangzhou. He tested positive for the H5 strain. 

The boy was confirmed to have been in contact with a live duck between May 17 and 19 at a farmer's market in Guangzhou. However, tests conducted at the market and surrounding markets, as well as a hospital in Zhuangzhou that had admitted the boy, found no signs of a bird flu outbreak, said He Jianfeng, director of the Epidemic Studies Institute of the Guangdong Disease Control Center. 

He said the province has launched an avian influenza response plan and is keeping track of the whereabouts of those who were in close contact with the child, as well as monitoring their health.

Uganda: HIV positive boy abandons school

Via allAfrica.com, a report from The New Vision: Uganda: Stigma - HIV Positive Boy Abandons School. Excerpt:

At Nabwigulu Primary School, hundreds of kilometers away the capital Kampala in the western district of Kamuli, the 13-year-old Charles Okurut is crashing under HIV and segregation, and has opted to dropping out of school to avoid being a subject of mockery amongst his peers. 

He has become talk of every child at school and no one wants to play, eat or sit next to him in class. 

"I am frustrated. My friends run away from me. They even abandon the desks where I'm seated," Okurut says. "I always have to scratch myself to en extent of the skin peeling off, to be able to get relief. My skin is always irritating me. It itches badly," he laments.  

Okurut is just one of the 1.2m AIDS orphans in Uganda, according to Ugandan National Bureau of Standards estimates. 

An estimated 150,600 children are living with HIV in Uganda today. More 27,000 children are estimated to be will be born with HIV; of which 50% of them will die before their second birthday. Reports also show that 75% will most likely die before their fifth year of life. 

Okurut's ordeal started in April when he developed a skin rash, as a drug reaction from the ARV's he got from the Anti-Retroviral Therapy clinic in Kamuli Main hospital. 

Besides that, he is malnourished and often goes misses the school porridge meal because his guardians are poor cannot afford the six kilograms of maize and sh3,000 for its milling; as demanded by the school authorities of every pupil every term. 

His elder sister, Tapenensi Nansubuga says Okurut has abandoned school and spends roaming the village and climbing trees as his growing hobby out of desperation. 

It is believed Okurut contracted the virus from his deceased parents; who died in the early 2000s of HIV/AIDS. Nansubuga admits she is financially struggling. 

Okurut tested positive last year and was put on Septrin tablets, before he started ARV's, following the fall of his CD-4 count. "He may improve but the rash is at a high magnitude and there's need for serious consultations," Salamuka, the District Chairman for the Forum for the People Living with HIV/AIDS says, adding that, "the boy needs counseling and better feeding."

Singapore: Largest cluster of dengue cases in Ang Mo Kio

Via Channel NewsAsia: Largest cluster of dengue cases in Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 & 10. Excerpt:

SINGAPORE: The estates of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 and Avenue 10 now have Singapore's largest dengue cluster so far for this year. 

As of Friday, they have a total of 53 cases. 

Flower pots, plastic pails and vases have become major breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquito, which carries the dengue virus. 

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said the Ang Mo Kio dengue cluster was formed on April 12 this year. Nineteen blocks are affected. 

Most of the mosquito breeding grounds are in residential units. 

"Because of the dengue outbreak here, I try my best not to be at home most of the time... so (I have) less chance of getting the fever," said 62-year-old resident Mr Jimmy Ng. 

Residents are also concerned that the problem could worsen, due to construction work in the neighbourhood. 

NEA said 20 of its officers have been conducting daily search and destroy operations in the area. It has acted against those who were responsible for mosquito breeding.

Hong Kong: Boy confirmed ill with H5N1

Via the Hong Kong government website: Boy confirmed ill with H5N1.

Laboratory results have confirmed that a two-year-old boy from Guangzhou does have H5N1 Influenza A, the Centre for Health Protection said today, adding his condition has changed from stable to serious.   

He is in intensive care at Princess Margaret Hospital and has developed obstructive hydrocephalus.   

His parents are in quarantine at the hospital and lab tests for the influenza were negative.   

Two healthcare workers of the private clinic the boy attended, and another patient who attended the same clinic also tested negative.

The government site also has comments from Dr. York Chow, who is head of Hong Kong's public health. Channel NewsAsia has a more detailed report.

India: Dengue scare rocks city

Via The New Indian Express: Dengue scare rocks city. Excerpt:

CHENNAI: On Wednesday night an SMS that started in media circles went viral – ‘First dengue death in Chennai. Manjula (29) d/o Kasinathan died due to dengue. She was admitted in KHM Hospital in Anna Nagar,’ it read. 

While it turned out that the woman tested negative for the disease post-mortem, word had got out and caused a mini panic. Courtesy the widespread news about 34 dengue deaths indicating an epidemic in the Tirunelveli-Tuticorin belt, people were understandably afraid. 

“We have run out of mosquito repellant and coils in the last two days. People have begun purchasing two and three mosquito nets, like they're going to war,” said the store manager of a retail supermarket in Anna Nagar. 

While mosquito quelling measures are very much in vogue during a regular Chennai summer, this time the scare has taken things a little further. Astonishingly, it is only after the deaths in Tirunelveli began to make news that people began taking dengue seriously. 

Even AH1N1 (swine flu) caused a massive panic in April when cases began cropping up and the total number of people affected this year in Chennai is just over 100. In comparison dengue has been silently consistent with over 131 cases being reported this year alone. 

“As long as the fatalities are few and far between, people don't take it seriously. Now that dengue is spreading quickly people with a fever and rash are crowding our OP wards,” said an administrator at Stanley Medical College and Hospital. 

And almost as if on cue, doctors in private hospitals that Express spoke to admitted that in the last week people have been bringing in their children as soon as they break out with a rash or are mildly warm. “They come into the ER and ask us to save the child from dengue,” said a doctor at a private hospital in south Chennai, “But we actually encountered two kids with dengue through this, so I suppose it's good in a way to be paranoid,” he said.

Guinea: MSF vaccinates 117,000 people against cholera

Via ReliefWeb, a report from MSF: MSF vaccinates 117,000 people against cholera in Guinea: a promising approach to outbreak response. Excerpt:

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has vaccinated 117,000 people against cholera in the region of Boffa, 150 km north of Conakry, the Guinean capital. This is the first time that people in Africa have been protected during a cholera outbreak by a two-dose oral vaccine. This initiative could spur an improved response to cholera epidemics worldwide. 

In collaboration with the Guinean Ministry of Health, MSF focused its response on a coastal region near Conakry, which was considered a hotspot of the epidemic. 

"We were faced with an outbreak and we wanted first to protect people by vaccinating them, and to limit the spread of cholera," said Dr Dominique Legros, MSF’s innovation initiative manager in Geneva. 

"MSF is regularly involved in responding to cholera outbreaks and it is always difficult to control the disease," said Dr Legros. "Because cholera evolves quickly, oral vaccination provides us with a new tool to try to contain the disease. If we can control the most active spots, we can reduce the spread of cholera." 

Since the vaccination campaign, MSF and its partner Épicentre have strengthened epidemiological surveillance in the region in order to monitor the evolution of the epidemic and the efficacy of the vaccine over the next six months.

CIDRAP: Hong Kong H5 infection raises alert level

Via CIDRAP, an excellent summary of the situation by Lisa Schnirring: Hong Kong H5 infection raises alert level. Excerpt:

Hong Kong health officials raised the pandemic influenza response level from alert to serious today after one of the local hospitals confirmed an H5 infection in a boy from China's Guandong province. 

In a statement, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said the 2-year-old boy came down with a fever and runny nose on May 23 in Guangdong, where his parents and grandmother live. On May 26 he came to Hong Kong and was evaluated at a private clinic in Mong Kok. 

Guangdong province, in southern China on the South China Sea coast, is about 90 miles from Hong Kong. 

The boy had febrile convulsions and on May 28 was taken to the emergency department at Caritas Medical Centre, which admitted him for suspected encephalitis. A CHP spokesman said the boy's respiratory samples tested positive for H5 influenza and that more tests are underway to further characterize the virus, according to the CHP statement. 

The boy is in stable condition, and investigators are exploring how he might have been exposed to the virus. The CHP said the patient's household contacts are asymptomatic. 

The CHP is in close contact with mainland and hospital authorities to monitor the situation, according to the statement. 

Health officials have launched a phone hotline to field questions from the public and are advising the public to follow good general health habits, maintain good hygiene, and avoid direct contact with poultry and birds. 

In a separate statement, the CHP said that in keeping with the increased alert level, the Hospital Authority has activated its serious response level for public hospitals. The upgraded response level means stricter infection control measures will be enforced in the facilities, and no visitors will be allowed in isolation units unless on compassionate grounds. 

The CHP said all acute hospitals will scale back visiting limits to 2 hours a day and 2 people per visit. Convalescent facilities will limit visiting hours to 4 hours per day. At the serious alert level, volunteer services are suspended at hospitals, and hospital and clinic visitors who have respiratory symptoms are advised to wear surgical masks and observe good hand hygiene before entering patient areas.

This is a little boy who should be tracked for years, if not for the rest of his life. I keep thinking about the 247 known survivors of 604 confirmed H5N1 cases. What helped them survive a disease that killed 357 others? And will H5N1 affect them later in life?

Haiti: "The cholera alerts have increased in four departments"

Via AlterPresse.org: Haiti-Cholera: Multiplication alerts in four of the 10 geographic departments. Excerpt from a slightly edited Google translation:

"The cholera alerts have increased in four (4) of the 10 geographical departments of the country, as the Artibonite, the Northeast, the Northwest and West during the month of May [2012]," says the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its bulletin of a first consultation in June 2012 by the online agency AlterPresse. 

An increase in new cases occurred in the Ile de la Gonave (west of Port-au-Prince) and in the IDP camps and neighboring communities of Martissant and Carrefour (southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince), OCHA notes. 

"The Artibonite is particularly affected, due to multiple outbreaks of cholera, including in remote areas, contamination of rivers and poor hygiene practices," said the health cluster. 

20% and 17% of deaths are in the departments where the number of organizations involved in the cholera response has gradually decreased from 20 to 7 at the moment. 

The latest report from the Department of Public Health and Population (MSPP) reported more than 7,000 dead (7.188 people died of cholera) between October 18, 2010 and May 24, 2012. 

The epidemiological warning system has identified the majority of alerts since 1 st April 2012, due to the early onset of the rainy season, reports the Pan American Health Organization (Ops). 

Reduced response for a possible resurgence of the disease 

Response capacity of health partners would not be sufficient to cope with the cholera epidemic, if current trends were to continue, says the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

The decline in humanitarian funding in Haiti, since the second half of 2011, has reduced the capacity of health partners to face a resurgence of the epidemic, said OCHA. 

At the peak of June 2011, 2,500 beds were available in the country, against 814 today, the majority of whom are already occupied. 

Given the limits of declining humanitarian budgets, the health cluster claims to have reviewed its priorities for the next six months (June-November 2012) to support patients in cholera-affected areas, especially areas isolated and displaced persons camps, and prevent the spread of Vibrio cholerae and other infectious diseases.

Hong Kong: Boy infected with H5 in stable condition

Many thanks to Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary for picking up this news release from the Hong Kong government: Boy infected with H5 in stable condition. Excerpt:

The serious response level under the Government's Preparedness Plan for influenza pandemic was activated today (June 1) as the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) investigated a case of influenza A H5 infection affecting a two-year-old boy.      

The patient developed fever and runny nose on May 23 in Guangdong province. He came to Hong Kong on May 26 and sought medical attention from a private medical clinic in Mong Kok. Subsequently, he developed febrile convulsion and was taken to the Accident and Emergency Department of Caritas Medical Centre on May 28.  He was admitted for suspected encephalitis. He is now in stable condition.      

A spokesman for the CHP said that the nasopharyngeal aspirate taken from the boy tested positive for Influenza A (H5). Further studies on the virus were in progress.      

Investigation revealed that the patient lived in Guangdong province with his parents and maternal grandmother. His exposure history during incubation period is pending.      

His home contacts were asymptomatic.      

A telephone hotline, 2125 1111, has been set up to answer public enquiries from tomorrow (June 2). The hotline will be operated from 9am to 6pm.      

"The CHP is also closely liaising with the Mainland authorities and the Hospital Authority to monitor the situation," the spokesman said.

Note that this is just an H5 confirmation; more testing should reveal if it's H5N1 or another strain. But it's the first such case I can recall in Hong Kong in years, and it's an imported one.

You can see how organized Hong Kong is from its Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic on the website of the Centre for Health Protection. If every jurisdiction took public health as seriously as Hong Kong does, we'd have a lot more public health.

Philippines: Dengue cases on the rise in Zamboanga City

Via philstar.com: Dengue cases on the rise in Zamboanga City. Excerpt:

A two year-old boy became the latest victim of the dengue fever in this southern port city, bringing to 14 the number of people who died of the disease since the start of the year, a health official said Friday. 

Dr. Rodelyn Agbulos, City Health Officer, said the child, who succumbed from the dengue disease Thursday, was also the fifth victim for the month of May. 

Agbulos said the number of cases have also increased to more than 1,100 patients this year, alarming authorities as dengue patients continue to rise despite government efforts to destroy the breeding grounds of the aedes aegypti mosquitoes. 

The health official warned residents against ignoring calls for cleanliness, saying the community "could no longer escape" the disease. 

The health official was also alarmed that the dengue mosquitoes are already “domesticated” and no longer breed in the surroundings, citing a Department of Health study that found that most of the mosquitoes caught inside the houses in the community were aedes aegypti.

Swaziland: 70% HIV rate among sex workers

Via allAfrica.com, a report from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa: Swaziland: Shocking HIV Rate Among Sex Workers. Excerpt:

A groundbreaking survey in Swaziland has produced a truly shocking statistic - HIV prevalence among sex workers stands at 70.3 percent. 

Around the world, female sex workers are at greater risk of HIV infection than the general population but until the Swaziland HIV Bio-Behavioral Surveillance Study and Qualitative Study among Most At-Risk Populations, no one knew how serious the situation was in Swaziland. Now they do. 

Conducted by Population Service International in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University in the United States, the study shows that HIV prevalence among sex workers increased with age. However, even the youngest group of sex workers had an HIV prevalence rate of 44 percent - far higher than the general population. 

Despite the high HIV prevalence among sex workers, some of their clients continue to insist on having sex without a condom. Out of the 325 sex workers who participated in the study, less than a quarter said that they had always used condoms in the past month. 

In particular, condoms were used less often with regular clients and non-commercial partners. 

Meanwhile, the study also surveyed men who have sex with men (MSM) in Swaziland and found that half of them use condoms each time they have sex - and that the HIV prevalence rate among MSM is relatively low at 17.7 percent, substantially less than the general population. 

While few men are brave enough to openly disclose their sexuality, 325 MSM participated in the research -70 percent of whom were younger than 25. The study found that 54 percent of MSM felt rejected by friends due to their sexuality, while 55.3 percent of them were afraid to seek health care for the same reason.

Vietnam: Another case of skin disease in Quang Ngai?

Thanks to FluTrackers for picking up the link to this Viet Nam News report: Woman hospitalised for unknown disease. Excerpt:

A 34-year-old woman with breathing difficulties and skin peeling off the palms of her hands has been taken to a healthcare centre in central Quang Ngai Province. 

Dinh Van Bum, head of the Son Ky Commune's communal health care centre said that It was suspected the woman had been in contact with a herbicide when she worked in the field three days before. 

She is one of 15 people in the commune who have been treated for suspected herbicide poisoning over the past two months, four of whom died.

Vietnam: Ben Tre Province investigates HIV infection in 12 residents

Via Saigon Giai Phong: Ben Tre Province investigates HIV infection in 12 residents. Excerpt:

Health authorities in the southern province of Ben Tre are trying to establish the source of HIV infection in 12 residents of Phu Dang Hamlet in Ngai Dang Commune of Mo Cay Nam District. 

An infected HIV man in Mo Cay Nam District in Ben Tre Province pointing at an injection received from Be, the local practitioner The People’s Committee of Ben Tre Province released this information at a press conference on May 31. 

Nguyen Van Nghia, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee has ordered the provincial health sector to take assistance from the HCMC Pasteur Institute and the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control to identify the cause of HIV infection in 12 residents in the province who are between the ages of 30-60.   

The police will also help in identifying the source of the infection in a bid to calm the local people and contain all kinds of rumours from spreading. 

Medical workers are also working to educate people on how to use preventive measures to remain free from the disease. 

Nghia said that such a situation has never occurred before in the province, hence it is causing greater concern amongst the public as well as doubts among relatives of patients. 

The first HIV infected patient in the hamlet had arrived at Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for kidney treatment and while undergoing checks doctors found he was infected with HIV disease as well. 

After this news spread, many local men had their blood tested and 11 of them were found to be infected with the fatal disease, although their lifestyles were healthy. 

All the 12 patients said that they like others in the hamlet, had previously been treated by 62-year-old Do Van Be, a retired physician engaged in medical practice but without a practitioner’s license. 

When asked, Be said he adhered to the principle of using disposable needles for injections, so the chance of HIV transmission through infected needles could be ruled out. Moreover, many men, women and children have been treated by Be, but so far only the men have been found with the HIV virus.