LAGOS: A cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed nearly 100 lives over the past two weeks, the United Nations said Saturday.
More than 3,000 cholera cases have been recorded in the states of Yobe and Borno in a region that is also grappling with a Boko Haram insurgency, it said.
"The cumulative number of recorded cases in both states currently stands at 3,126 including 97 deaths," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The outbreak was declared two weeks ago in restive Borno, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in camps.
Boko Haram has intensified attacks, especially against military targets in recent months.
On Wednesday, the UN reported that more than 500 people had died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, representing the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years.
It said more than six million people could be affected by the outbreak without urgent action to control it.
Expected floods and heavy rains were "an ideal environment for the outbreak to spread", OCHA warned.
The Lake Chad region straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which are also having to deal with an extremist insurgency.
OCHA said Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, was the worst-hit with 24,000 cases overall, and said immediate action was needed to stem the disease.
Cholera is caused by a bacterium transmitted through contaminated food or drinking water. It causes acute diarrhoea, with children particularly at risk.
Water-borne diseases are a constant threat in the Lake Chad region because of a lack of adequate sanitation as well as stagnant groundwater during the rainy season.
Cholera outbreak in Nigeria claims nearly 100 lives
Cholera outbreak in Nigeria claims nearly 100 lives
- More than 3,000 cholera cases have been recorded in the states of Yobe and Borno in a region that is also grappling with a Boko Haram insurgency
- Boko Haram has intensified attacks, especially against military targets in recent months
Bangladeshi doctors on alert as dengue death rate highest in decades
- Bangladesh is witnessing the highest death rate from dengue since 2003
- Disease outbreak forecast to continue for the next two months
DHAKA: Bangladeshi doctors are on alert as this year’s mortality rate from dengue fever is the highest in over two decades.
Each year, dengue fever becomes a major health concern during the monsoon season between July and October, with thousands of Bangladeshis contracting the viral and potentially deadly disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquitoes breeding in freshwater pools.
The disease used to be rare in the 1960s, but since the early 2000s, its incidence has increased dramatically.
While the worst outbreak was recorded last year, with over 211,000 people hospitalized across the country, this year the country is witnessing the highest death rate from the disease since 2003.
Out of 34,121 dengue patients admitted to hospitals, 177 have died, according to Directorate General of Health Services data.
“This year, the fatality rate from dengue is higher than in the previous years, although the number of patients is less,” Dr. Mohammed Mushtuq Husain, adviser at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research in Dhaka, told Arab News.
“The fatality is worrying as it is the highest in the world at the moment.”
The death rate has reached 0.52 percent, surpassing last year’s 0.49 percent.
“This dengue trend is feared to continue. When this monsoon rain spell is over, it will continue for the next two months — it’s the life cycle of the dengue virus and Aedes mosquitoes,” Husain said.
Dr. Muzaherul Huq, former World Health Organization regional adviser, warned that prevention and early detection need to be strengthened as the outbreak is not over yet.
“The way dengue case fatality is increasing, it may take a worrying (turn) at any moment. So, we need to strengthen the prevention methods against the dengue virus. Otherwise, we won’t be able to fight this,” he said.
Deaths are mostly occurring as patients come to hospitals at the last stage, often after a long time traveling as most specialist and testing facilities are available only at major clinics.
Many also come infected with dengue for the second or third time. A person can be infected several times with different variants of the virus.
“There are four strains of dengue virus. If someone gets infected with dengue in previous years, second or third-time infection causes more risks for him or her,” said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Rezaur Rahman, director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka.
“Dengue is a viral disease, and it mutates regularly. This is why it’s tough to eradicate.”
There is no treatment for the disease yet, and the focus is on treating its symptoms. In its severe form, it causes internal bleeding and deadly organ impairment.
Indian FM meets Sri Lanka’s new leadership, assures support in economic rebuilding
- S. Jaishankar is the first top foreign official to meet Sri Lanka’s new president
- India was a key partner in extending support to Sri Lanka during its 2022 economic crisis
New Delhi: India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in Colombo on Friday to meet Sri Lanka’s new president and government and assure New Delhi’s continued support.
Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office on Sept. 23, after winning the country’s first presidential vote since its financial collapse in 2022.
A day later, he appointed his three-member government and dissolved the parliament, clearing the way for new parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 14.
The Indian foreign minister is the first top foreign official to pay an official visit to Sri Lanka since its regime change.
He took to X after meeting Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.
“Discussed ways to deepen ongoing cooperation and strengthen India-Sri Lanka ties for the benefit of people of two countries and the region,” Jaishankar said, as he also expressed “India’s continued support to Sri Lanka’s economic rebuilding.”
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the visit aimed to “further deepen the longstanding partnership” between the countries under India’s Neighborhood First Policy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s geopolitical framework of cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
Dissanayake, the country’s first Marxist-leaning leader, took over the job on the promise of change, as the island nation of 22 million is still reeling from the crisis and austerity measures imposed by his predecessor as a part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.
Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner, India in 2022 emerged also as the main source of support to its battered economy.
“India has been consistently engaged with the Sri Lankan leadership since the economic crisis, and Jaishankar’s visit is a signal that despite the change in government, India is likely to continue to work closely with the new dispensation,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, told Arab News.
“India intends to have as close ties with this government as it had with the previous. I think this is a signal of India’s interest … India is keen to continue the momentum in the relationship that had set in after India became the most active player in helping Sri Lanka get out of the economic crisis.”
The lineup of Sri Lanka’s new government will be finalized after November’s election. Currently, the president, the prime minister and the foreign minister have divided all the portfolios among themselves. A proper cabinet will be appointed after the parliamentary vote, with the composition depending on its results.
“India has registered that it is willing to work with the new government. That is the main message from the visit … Other details about projects, investment and other things will take time,” N. Sathiya Moorthy, a political analyst in Chennai, told Arab News.
“Every Sri Lankan remembers how India rushed to help during their economic crisis. So, the new government will not overlook that sentiment also.”
France, Italy launch project to exchange migrant trafficking information
- The project will be modeled after a similar deal between France and Britain
- France’s new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said it was his priority to further toughen immigration laws
PARIS: The interior ministers of France and Italy signed a declaration on their intention to exchange information related to migrant trafficking, the French interior ministry said on Friday.
The project will be modeled after a similar deal between France and Britain, launched in 2020 in the north of France in a bid to stop attempts to reach the United Kingdom.
France’s new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a law-and-order politician from the conservative Republican party (LR), said it was his priority to further toughen immigration laws, echoing remarks from the prime minister who said the country needed to control its border better.
Immigration is also a tense domestic issue in Italy, where far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to drastically curb entries, though has not yet proved successful.
“Its objective is clear: to trigger judicial investigations, often combined, aimed at dismantling the networks underpinning the illegal flow through Italy to the rest of the European Union, in which France remains a sought-after destination,” the French interior ministry said in a statement.
In November 2022, tensions flared between France and Italy after Italy refused to let a charity ship with migrants dock, forcing it to go instead to a port in southern France.
The countries share a 500 km (300 mile) land border, mainly cutting through the Alps. Both countries are in the EU’s Schengen area with no border controls between them, though individual countries are responsible for asylum seekers who arrive in them.
German security chief warns over October 7 ‘trigger point’
- Middle East turmoil tends to spark reactions in Germany, warned Thomas Haldenwang, chief of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
- Anti-Semitism and hostility toward Israel are a “connecting element” between Islamists, pro-Palestinian extremists and other radical groups on the far right and far left
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence chief warned Friday that the anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel could be a “trigger event” for unrest.
Next Monday marks one year since the attack by the Palestinian Islamist militant group that sparked Israel’s invasion of Gaza and conflict with Hamas allies in Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere.
Middle East turmoil tends to spark reactions in Germany, warned Thomas Haldenwang, chief of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Anti-Semitism and hostility toward Israel are a “connecting element” between Islamists, pro-Palestinian extremists and other radical groups on the far right and far left, he said.
“The anniversary could be a trigger event for large parts of the protest spectrum,” he said, warning of a “great potential for emotionalization, polarization and radicalization.”
Aside from official commemorations of the October 7 attack, a number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned in Germany at the weekend and on Monday.
In Berlin, police union spokesman Benjamin Jedro said that “we are looking at the coming days with great concern” after witnessing “hatred, anti-Semitism and violent excesses” by some pro-Palestinian activists.
Haldenwang in his statement pointed out that the number of anti-Semitic crimes had risen to an all-time high since the Gaza war started.
“The potential danger of possible terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions, as well as against ‘the West’ as a whole, has increased significantly in the past six months.”
Haldenwang reiterated his warning against jihadist attacks, pointing to a deadly stabbing spree in the western city of Solingen last month.
“Islamists have understood how to use the current Middle East crisis to revitalize their propaganda and mobilize their followers,” he said.
The Daesh group is “using its propaganda to use the situation in Gaza to create emotions and encourage young Muslims in the West in particular to carry out terrorist attacks.”
The October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has described the figures as reliable.
Nigeria’s Borno state hit by cholera amid flood devastation
- Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Borno, the epicenter of a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency
- Flooding in Borno began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains
ABUJA: A cholera outbreak has hit Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, already reeling from floods that displaced nearly 2 million people, an official said on Friday.
Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Borno, the epicenter of a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency that has displaced thousands into camps and strained sanitation facilities and potable water sources.
Borno Health Commissioner Baba Mallam Gana told reporters that 17 cases have been recorded following tests, but no deaths so far.
“However, we are recording an increasing number of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD)/suspected Cholera which is not unconnected with the flood devastation,” Gana said.
Almost 500 cases of AWD have been recorded, Gana said, with five local government areas mostly affected.
Flooding in Borno began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains, displacing millions from their homes and damaging health facilities and other infrastructures.
Gana said that to combat the latest outbreak, the state got 300,000 oral cholera vaccine (OCV) doses from the federal health ministry, which have been distributed across displacement camps and flood-hit communities.
The state is waiting for an additional 600,000 doses of the vaccine to ensure adequate coverage, he said.
