Nigeria : 71 people dead , 750 lying critically ill from unknown disease.

At least 71 people have been confirmed dead and other 746 lying critically ill of a yet to be diagnosed disease in northeast Nigeria's Adamawa State, reported on Friday. Bubakari Musa Kamale, state commissioner for information, confirmed the death toll, saying the nature of the disease has not been determined. The official said the state government is waiting for the outcome of the specimen sent for analysis. The epidemic has continued unabated for the past weeks, he said, ruling out the outbreak of cholera. "This is a strange disease that is characterized by excessive vomiting, diarrhea, high fever and in some instances, coughing," said the commissioner. According to Kamale, the samples have since been sent for analysis to teaching hospitals in southwest Nigeria's Oyo State and northern Borno State, as well as to France and the United States. He said the state government had taken measures to arrest the situation from spreading by providing drugs to the Health Ministry for administration in the affected areas.

Source

Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside..

[edit on 3-10-2009 by VitalOverdose]

I'd say that it will probably hit the states soon....Why not!!

S & F


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[edit on 3-10-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

Yet another virus popping up, thats all we need right now..



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[edit on 3-10-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

This outbreak was reported on the 25th of September. How often do they update these things. I hadn't seen this in the news at all.

Scary and alarming considering the propensity for new hemorrhagic viri evolving in the jungles.

Seems to be mixed reports about this.

This article mentions the 71 deaths are caused from cholera:

Mr. Sambo also said the agency was trying to check the spread of cholera, which has claimed the lives of 70 people in Adamawa State.

234next.com...

This article from ReliefWeb also mentions cholera being the cause of death:

"The death toll from the cholera outbreak stands at 71 out of the 746 cases recorded in some areas in the northern part of the state", Zainab Baba Kwanci told AFP from state capital city Yola.

"Cholera cases have been recorded in seven out of the 21 local governments in the state and the government is doing all within its powers to contain the outbreak. We have dispatched drugs to the affected areas", she said.

However a strike by medical workers in the state since July 25 was hampering efforts to assist the sick.

Last September, a spate of cholera outbreaks in northern Nigeria claimed almost 100 lives in Katsina, Zamfara and Bauchi states.

www.reliefweb.int...



And the latest article I could find from 3 days ago:

Cholera has claimed 77 lives in recent weeks in Adamawa State, leaving nearly 1,000 people hospitalised.

"At the moment we have recorded 77 deaths and 934 cases in the cholera outbreak," said Adamawa information commissioner Musa Bubakari by telephone from Yola, the state capital, which shares border with Taraba state.

In September last year, a spate of cholera outbreaks in northern Nigeria claimed almost 100 lives in Katsina, Zamfara and Bauchi States.

www.google.com...


Seems there's no need for a panic...unless you live in Nigeria that is.






[edit on 3/10/09 by Chadwickus]

Thats some fast researching there chadwickus But i think they have ruled at cholera now.

The epidemic has continued unabated for the past weeks, he said, ruling out the outbreak of cholera

It scares me that they instantly send samples to the US and France as both have the capabilities to turn diseases like this into weapons.

[edit on 3-10-2009 by VitalOverdose]

reply to post by VitalOverdose


Cholera would be an ineffective weapon in first world countries in my opinion, you would need to infect all clean drinking water and remove all means to sanitize any tainted water. This is why cholera outbreaks occur in disaster areas (such as flooding, like what happened in Nigeria) and third would countries.

Having said that, it has been used as a weapon before:

Cholera as a Biological Weapon

During World War II, the Japanese biological weapons program known as Unit 731 located in Pingfan Manchuria (24 kilometers south of Harbin) experimented with Vibrio cholera as a weapons agent. It was reported that the Japanese dropped cholera and typhus cultures into more than 1,000 Chinese wells and reportedly caused 10,000 cases in 1941. However, an estimated 1,700 of the deaths were Japanese soldiers, a testimony to the difficulty of protecting one's own troops from biological agents and controlling infections.

South Africa's biological weapons program, Project Coast (1981-1994), under the direction of Colonel Wouter Basson, developed cholera as a possible biological agent. It was reported that during South Africa's civil war, cholera, anthrax and other bacteria were released into water in rebel-held areas.

Iraq's biological weapons program reportedly began with the start of the Al-Hazen Institute in 1974 where cholera was one of the biological agents under study. North Korea reportedly also studied cholera as a possible biological weapons agent.

www.globalsecurity.org...

here we go.. hang on to your seats folks..



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[edit on 3-10-2009 by DontTreadOnMe]

Maybe the WHO or one of its relief agencies has vaccinated these people recently.

You know, to help them.

Yesterday's news seems to think there may be a different cause.

From allAfrica.com

Nigeria: Adamawa's Endless Battle Against Epidemic

It was the same case of suspected Cholera, but the Commissioner explained that, in the Maiha's experience, a different angle about the cause of the outbreak has being suspected.

"Maiha case was suspected to be connected to the use of herbicides on farms of hill tops which were later washed down into the streams and wells following heavy down pour and people use these wells and streams for drinking," she suspected.

The explanation given in the Madagali and Demsa cases, were still on the case of application of herbicides that are washed into their drinking streams.

Here, too, samples are taken to the laboratory to show whether the case of cholera was still being suspected.

The causes of the outbreak as further buttressed by the Commissioner involved indiscriminate defacation of faeces that steal its way into drinking wells and streams.

It's Africa.

Why the surprise that there's an unknown disease?

as for the concern for it to come to the States:
Take your vitamins
Wash your hands
Don't bite your nails
and even though our health care system isn't the best, it's a lot better than Africa's system lol.


[edit on 3-10-2009 by GorehoundLarry]

It's stomach flu,

we should hope that it's stomach flu and not something too dangerous.

Wasn't Hilary Clinton and her State Dept. entourage there not too long ago? Possibly last month if I remember correctly? Hmmmm. Carry on.

This sounds somewhat similar to the filoviridae family, which includes Marburg and Ebola.

If this is part of the same family of disease, you better pray that this doesn't escalate any further...

Why so much terrible things come from Africa? Killer bees. West Nile Virus. AIDS from Green Monkey tails. Ebola.

WTF? Is that continent the source of all this or a playground for microbiologists terrorists?

Or, maybe, should we should all just let nature take its course on that continent?

The title of Dark Continent seems fitting to me.

reply to post by kyred


Ever hard of Project Coast? Though i think it was shut down some time ago now.

[edit on 3-10-2009 by VitalOverdose]

The US government would have you all act calm and dismiss this outbreak as another one of those Nigerian scams.

Wow S&F. I have not heard of this. Why has this not been in the news? This is one of the few things that freak me out!

Watch, this will be the reason we will be forced to get vaccinated. I hope all those people get better!!!

reply to post by kyred

I was not much of a conspiracy theorist until 1995 when I met a microbiologist/md doctor hired by congress in 1990 to research aids and present his findings to a comittee.

I met him at a gathering of patriots on the national mall. To make a long technical story short, he found out that a defense contractor with headquarters in falls church, va had registered samples of the antibodies-thus they had the aids virus, five years prior to any known infection.

It was by no means a natural mutation from a wild primate but a bio-weapon created in a lab around 1970. This doctor had given up his career and was screaming from a mountain top that our govt. Had created and released in africa, a virus intended to kill undesirables- IV drug users and casual sex participants.

He had written a book and presented his findings in a fashion befitting a peer reviewed medical journal.

He said he was dismissed as a crack pot on the hill. For those of you too young to remember, the "population explosion" was the global warming of the early 70's. It was all over pop culture, in the schools and media. Something had to be done and apparently somebody did. Africa was not chosen by accident.

I wish I had purchased his book or even remembered his name. At the time, I was so shocked by the implication that the government I thought was there to help us, saw us as a growing threat to the survival of the planet.

I think the aids virus didn't do nearly the job it was intended for. I believe the new manufactured H1N1 virus is the second act in a diabolical plan to cull the herd and maintain a reasonably easy population to control. The odds of the H1N1 virus naturally occuring is astronomical. It is a weapon intended to cull you and your family. DON'T TAKE THE SHOT.