DAKAR: Senegal has recorded 17 deaths from Rift Valley Fever, RVF, a health ministry official said Thursday, in a rare major outbreak of the viral disease in the West African country.
With 119 cases reported so far, mostly in northern Senegal’s livestock-producing region, the outbreak is raising concerns about further spread, said Dr. Boly Diop, head of RVF surveillance at the health ministry.
“This is the first time Senegal has counted so many people affected,” Diop told local media.
RVF is a viral disease that mainly affects livestock. Humans typically become infected through mosquito bites or contact with infected animals.
While most human cases are mild or show no symptoms, severe cases can cause eye damage, brain swelling or hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal, according to the World Health Organization.
Transmission to humans usually occurs during slaughter, births or veterinary work, putting herders, farmers and slaughterhouse workers at a higher risk, the WHO says.
The current outbreak in Senegal was declared on Sept. 21.
Senegal’s last major outbreak dates back to the late 1980s, when it killed more than 200 people in the country and neighboring Mauritania.
RVF outbreaks have also previously occurred in other African countries, including in Kenya and Somalia in 1998 when it killed over 470 people. In 2000, the virus spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen — its first cases outside Africa — killing over 200 people and raising concerns of wider spread to Asia and Europe.
Preventing animal outbreaks through vaccination and reducing mosquito exposure are key to controlling the disease, the WHO says.
RVF has been endemic in northern Senegal since the 1980s and is becoming more frequent across Africa due to climate change, Dr. Merawi Aragaw Tegegne, an epidemiologist with the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference Thursday.
“If you see torrential rain with quick floods, then sunny days, expect RVF in the coming days with favorable conditions for the vectors,” Tegegne said.
Senegal records 17 deaths in rare major outbreak of Rift Valley Fever
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Senegal records 17 deaths in rare major outbreak of Rift Valley Fever
- “This is the first time Senegal has counted so many people affected,” Diop told local media
- RVF is a viral disease that mainly affects livestock
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
