Miscellaneous

Citation

(2001), "Miscellaneous", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 10 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2001.07310dac.006

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

22 October 2000 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia said yesterday that an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever had so far killed 84 people, taking the confirmed death toll in the kingdom and neighbouring Yemen to 154. The Saudi Health Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that by last night a total of 84 people had died out of 423 people who had contracted the viral disease since it broke out last month. The statement said that 201 people had recovered so far. Yemen had said that the fever killed a total of 70 people by yesterday, out of 500 people who had contracted the disease. Yemen and Saudi Arabia have co-operated in using aircraft to spray mosquito-infected areas along their common border.

23 October 2000 – Uganda

Health officials have identified ten new cases of the dreaded Ebola fever, as they search for people who have come in contact with the deadly virus that has already killed 54 in northern Uganda, the Ministry of Health said today. A statement signed by Francis Omaswa, the director-general of health services, said that three people had died in the previous 24 hours. The new cases were identified in the same period around Gulu, 225 miles north of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The ministry attributed the increase in the number of new cases to the village-by-village search by health officials and emphasised that no cases of Ebola had been reported outside Gulu and surroundings villages. The statement said that 149 people had fallen ill with the haemorrhagic fever since the outbreak was confirmed 14 October. Yesterday, Dr Sam Zaramba, director of health services in Uganda, told reporters that 51 people had died and an estimated 200 had come in contact with Ebola victims. He said that he expected an increase in the number of deaths and in cases identified in the coming days. Experts from the World Health Organisation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Doctors Without Borders are in Gulu helping the Ugandan authorities attempt to contain the disease. On Friday (20 October), WHO launched an appeal for $848,000 to help the government, while the UN World Food Program is delivering food to hospitals treating victims. Ugandan authorities have allocated $200,000 to fight the outbreak. In an effort to prevent the spread of the disease, two burial sites have been set aside for Ebola victims near Gulu's two hospitals.

24 October 2000 – The death toll in Uganda from an Ebola outbreak climbed today, Ugandan officials said, with 60 people reported dead out of 165 suspected cases. The Health Ministry said that five new cases of Ebola were reported over the past day and six more patients had died. The Geneva-based World Health Organisation said today that several suspected cases of Ebola reported in a camp for people displaced by fighting in northern Uganda had been determined not to be Ebola. The camp is 25 miles north-west of Gulu. All confirmed cases have so far been confined to the Gulu region, 220 miles north of Kampala, said WHO spokesman Valery Abramov. Abramov also said that the epidemic could last up to three months, but WHO officials on the ground have been more optimistic, hoping to contain the outbreak within a month. The World Food Program resumed food distribution in the camps today and workers were taking precautions in case Ebola was present, said Jennifer Abrahamson, an agency spokeswoman.

The number of people infected with the deadly Ebola virus in northern Uganda has risen by seven to 182, a health official said today. No deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. All confirmed cases have been confined to the Gulu region, 225 miles north of Kampala, according to local and international health officials. Experts from the World Health Organisation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Doctors Without Borders are in Gulu helping Ugandan authorities try to contain the disease. In Geneva, WHO spokesman Valery Abramov said that the epidemic could last up to three months, but WHO officials in Gulu have been more optimistic about containing the outbreak within a month.