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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
COTE D'IVOIRE: Fears of meningitis and typhoid in rebel-held north
ABIDJAN, 27 November 2003 (IRIN) - Relief agencies which now provide the backbone of healthcare in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire, have warned that the region could face major outbreaks of meningitis and typhoid as the dry season sets in and the Harmattan wind blows dust south from the Sahara desert.
According to Kouakou Mathurin, an Abidjan-based health worker of the non-governmental organisation Sante pour Tous (Health for All) who travels extensively in rebel-controlled areas of the country, the months of November, December and January are critical periods for outbreaks of these killer diseases.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agreed. It said the the situation was particularly dangerous since health services in the rebel area were only functioning at only 30 percent of their normal capacity as a result of the civil war which broke out in September last year.
"We are trying to do the best we can, but we are not capable of meeting the health needs of the entire population," said Colette Gadenne, the head of MSF-Belgium in Cote d'Ivoire.
Since Monday, three suspected cases of meningitis had been recorded in the northern city of Korhogo, where MSF Belgium helps to run three health centres, she told IRIN on Thursday.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation reported the death of a 13-year-old boy from yellow fever near Odienne. MSF subsequently conducted a vaccination campaign in the area, but Gadenne said no further cases of the disease had been reported.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said 3,500 health workers in the rebel-held north had fled their posts since the conflict erupted. Those who left included 271 doctors and 903 nurses.
As a result, reliable statistics for the present incidence of meningitis and typhoid, and indeed most other infectious diseases, are difficult to come by.
However, Dr Douada Coulibaly, who works in the epidemic control section of the government's National Institute of Public Hygene, told IRIN: "We completely share the concerns of people in the north."
Coulibaly said he was particularly worried by the possibility of a virulent strain of meningitis crossing the border from Burkina Faso given the lack of health controls on the border and the dilapidated state of health services in the north. This W135 strain of meningitis wrought havoc in Burkina Faso last year, he noted.
Coulibaly said the risk of meningitis and typhoid outbreaks was particularly high at this time of the year because both diseases are spread by the dusty Harmattan wind that blows south from the Sahara in the early months of the dry season.
Meningitis is an inflamation of the brain which is accompanied by fever and can cause permanent brain damage or death.
Typhoid is a form of accute diarrhoea accompanied by high temperatures and severe stomach ache which is usually transmitted by contaminated drinking water and human contact.
NGOs said they were also worried about the rapid spread of other diseases associated with poor sanitation and lack of access to clean drinking water. The 400,000 inhabitants of the rebel capital Bouake in central Cote d'Ivoire, for example, were left with dry taps for two weeks in September when a key pump broke down, a UN official resident in the city told IRIN.
The pump was eventually repaired, when the French-owned water company brought in and fitted the necessary spare part. But in the meantime, most people in Bouake were forced to rely on contaminated well water . Even after the pump repair, water cuts in the city remain frequent, he noted.
Meanwhile, overflowing drains in Bouake, which has been without a regular rubbish collection for more than a year, were providing a fertile breeding ground for the mosquitoes that spread malaria, the UN official said.
In the past week, the rebel authorities, in conjuction with the National Islamic Council and the World Food Programme (WFP) had joined forces to resume rubbish collection in the city on a regular basis, he noted.
UN agencies have reported that food is plentiful in many northern districts, where the rains have been good and farmers have sown more grain this year instead of the usual cash crop cotton.
However MSF has voiced concern over high malnutrition rates in western areas close to the Liberian border around the town of Man.
Gadene said the city's hospital, which is now run by MSF Holland, was treating 100 cases of malnourished children, although the severity of new cases appeared to be easing.
MSF also said that poor standards of sanitation and hygene in the area, especially among people displaced from their homes by fighting, had meanwhile led to a sharp rise in skin diseases. Its hospital in Man has been seeing more than 90 cases a day.
Edith Kouassi, a dermatologist working in the government-controlled town of Yamoussoukro, told IRIN that poor hygene had led to a rapid increase in skin diseases throughout the north.
"Access to clean drinking water is difficult for most of the displaced people, and children in particular wash in puddles and other sources of unclean water and the fact that people share towels and sponges leads to the rapid transmission of skin diseases," she said.
Themes: (IRIN) Health & Nutrition
[ENDS]
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