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Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic
Fever reported in India
Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever has been reported
from a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
This is the first time that the disease has been documented
in India.
Some deaths have occurred in associated cases, including an attending doctor
and an attending nurse. Suspected
cases of this disease are admitted in a few
hospitals in Ahmedabad. WHO is providing technical support to the
Government for assessing and addressing the situation.
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever is a viral haemorrhagic
fever caused by a nairovirus. CCHF virus mostly
affects animals including cattle, sheep and goats. Sporadic cases and
outbreaks of CCHF occasionally occur in humans. The disease is normally passed between animals through the bite of
ticks. Humans may also be infected through tick
bites, but infection can also occur when humans are exposed to the body
fluids of an infected animal or human, for example through exposure to blood.
Members of the public in
affected areas should take precaution to avoid tick bites, and avoid contact
with the body fluids of any potentially infected human or animal. As long as
the precautions are taken, risk of infection is low.
Specific treatment in the
form of Ribavarin is available in India, which is
also used to treat hepatitis C. Other supportive treatment includes i.v. fluids, renal dialysis, mechanical
ventilation as needed.
Symptoms of CCHF include
fever, aching muscles, dizziness, sore eyes and neck, headache and back pain.
Abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting also occur.
The haemmorhagic features consist of a skin
rash - bleeding into the skin, which may spread to form bruises, followed in more serious cases by nosebleeds, bleeding from the gums
and passing blood in urine and the stool.
CCHF is endemic in many
countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and outbreaks have
been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Iran,
Pakistan, and South Africa.
With CCHF cases being
reported from neighbouring Pakistan annually and the tick vectors known
to exist in India, the
disease being reported in India
is not totally unexpected.
Fact sheets – WHO, CDC
Flash Floods in Leh
A series
of cloudbursts and flash floods hit Leh city in Ladakh region
of Jammu and Kashmir
on August 6, 2010, killing and injuring hundreds of people and causing
extensive damage to public and private property, civil hospital, airport,
drinking water supply works and vital communication and telecommunication
links. Nearly 25,000 people were affected by the
flash floods.
A
massive rescue and relief operation was launched with over 6,000 personnel of
Army, Air Force, Border Roads Organization, National Disaster Response Force
and Indo Tibetan Border Police assisting the civil administration in saving
lives and providing succor to the affected. Wading through knee-deep slush,
these personnel worked day and night to rescue people and extricate bodies
from under the debris. They helped clear roads and airport and reach ready-to-eat
food/ration, drinking water, medicines, blankets and pre-fabricated shelters to the affected people. The Indian Air Force
airlifted relief materials, rescue workers, medicines and emergency kits to Leh. The road construction wing of the army restored
bridges washed away by the flash floods.
WHO supported the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in augmenting medical relief
supplies to Leh. WHO worked closely with the Emergency Medical
Relief Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and mobilized
one Interagency Emergency Health Kit (IEHK) - 2006 which was transported by a special sortie of the
Indian Air Force to Leh on 8th
August.
To
quickly re-establish critical laboratory services in the damaged district
hospital at Leh, the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare decided to shift the Portable
Laboratory Kit (PLK 06), developed jointly by WHO and armed forces, from the
National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi. The PLK 06 was transported
to Leh by a
special sortie of the Indian Air Force on 9th August Additional
equipment and supplies were added to PLK 06 to establish blood banking and
transfusion services. In addition to the medical teams of the state, army and
central para-military
forces, two central teams with emergency surgical/medical consumables were deployed in Leh in a phased manner. The second
team returned recently after the situation stabilized. Two Public health
Specialists from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare continue to assist
the state health officials in strengthening public health interventions in
the affected areas. Medical consumables are
being replenished regularly by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India.
WHO is in
touch with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and is closely
monitoring the situation.
World Health Day
2010: Urbanization and Health More>…
Pandemic H1N1
2009More>…
Global Road
Traffic Injury Prevention Project
India
is among ten countries where WHO, along with consortium partners, is implementing the Global Road Traffic Injury Prevention
Project (GRIPP /RS 10) to reduce death and disability through road traffic
injury prevention projects. At a
two-day planning meeting in New Delhi on 27 – 28 April, officials from Directorate General of Health Services,
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Punjab and
Andhra Pradesh governments, consortium partners - Global Road Safety
Partnership, Johns Hopkins University, World Resource Institute for
Sustainable Transport (EMBARQ) and the World Bank – along with WHO, discussed
implementation of the project.More >..
WHO Ambassador for Elimination of
Leprosy visits Bihar
WHO Goodwill Ambassador for
Elimination of Leprosy, Mr Yohei Sasakawa, visited Bihar
in April and May 2010 to support social rehabilitation of the disease
affected people and also advocate with the state authorities to step up
efforts to eliminate leprosy.
Mr Sasakawa
visited colonies of leprosy affected people in Motihari,
Pipra and Chakia to get a
first hand account of their needs. The Goodwill Ambassador also attended a
meeting of the local branch of the Forum of Leprosy Affected People. Mr Sasakawa met
the state Health Minister Mr Nand Kishore Yadav,
Mission Director National Rural Health Mission, Mr Sanjay Kumar, and Member
of Parliament, Dr C P Thakur, and advocated for more efforts for social
rehabilitation of the leprosy affected people.
In May, Mr Sasakawa
revisited the state to present to the state Health Minister a detailed survey
of the 52 leprosy colonies in Bihar and
their demand for government housing and pension. The survey was conducted by the Forum of
Leprosy Affected People as per the direction of the state Health Minister.
Regional Director’s Message -
International Women’s Day, 8 March 2010
International
Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated in the United Nations system since
1977. One of the reasons to dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of
women is to recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and
the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms requires the
active participation, equality and development of women.
Women’s
health is one of the 12 areas of concern for women’s advancement cited by the
women’s conference in Beijing
in 1995. WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in launching the Women’s
Health Report (Women and Health, Today’s Evidence Tomorrow’s Agenda), in
November 2009, stated that widespread and persistent gender inequities has
limited the ability of girls and women to protect their health.
It has been
noted that the three most common gender inequity gaps are education,
economics and the empowerment of women. These three gaps hinder the
capability of women and girls to reach their highest attainable status in
health. A higher level of economic development does not necessarily lead to
gender equity, and the level of women’s empowerment does not depend on a
country’s level of wealth. There are other factors, such as cultural and
social context, that affect the status of women and girls, including health
inequity. Thus, promoting women’s health must consider multidisciplinary
areas using a multisectoral
approach.
In the
South-East Asia Region, gender-based violence (GBV) is becoming a major
public health problem; 9 out of 11 countries have highlighted this issue and
noted it as a violation of human rights. A majority of victims are women and
the perpetrators are mostly husbands. GBV causes physical injury and also
leads to mental health issues and sometimes the death of the victims. It
interferes with children’s and the entire family’s health. More >..
Dengue
Dengue is an outbreak
prone viral disease, transmitted to human beings by the bite of
infected Aedes
mosquitoes, principally Aedes
aegypti. In
recent years there has been an increase in the
number of dengue outbreaks across the world due to increasing mosquitogenic conditions in
urban and peri-urban
areas resulting from rapid urbanization, developmental activities and
lifestyle changes. Heavy rainfall adds to development of outbreak situations
by increasing the number of breeding sites. Over 100 countries have
reported dengue with more than 2.5 billion people at risk and an estimated 50
million infections every year. The major disease burden is
found in countries of South-East Asia
and the Western Pacific regions.
Facts about dengue
Frequently Asked
Questions
WHO Guidelines for
dengue prevention & control
Dengue & India
Global situation
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