As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus, another mysterious disease is silently infecting and killing villagers in Ethiopia’s Ogaden Basin. According to an investigation by The Guardian, the main symptoms of the disease – which one local leader claimed has killed 2000 people since 2014 include bleeding from the mouth and nose and intense yellowing of the eyes and palms.

Disease X

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has named it “Disease X,” a name given to a mysterious pathogen capable of spreading and wreaking havoc across the world.

When Abdi Khadar’s eyes and palms started turning yellow, nobody saw it as a cause for alarm. Soon he started bleeding from his nose and mouth with his body getting swollen. This was followed by a strong fever that made him frail eventually leading to his death. Many of Khadar’s neighbours have claimed experiencing similar symptoms .

Although the cause of the disease is not yet known, there are growing speculations that Poly-GCL, a partly state-owned Chinese company could be responsible. The company is currently engaged in oil and gas prospects in the Ogaden Basin where it has been developing the Calub and Hilala fields since 2013 when it signed a production sharing deal with the Ethiopian government.

Chinese Energy Company Spilling Toxic Waste May Be to Blame

An engineer who worked for the company for three years told the Guardian in confidence that there were regular spillages of sulphuric acid and other deadly fluids. This was reiterated by Ali Hassan Farah who claimed that “local people were dying from raw toxins spilled out of sheer carelessness.”

According to Healthline, long term exposure to toxins can cause scarring of the liver leading to a severe medical condition called Cirrhosis. Symptoms of cirrhosis occur when “the liver is unable to purify the blood, break down toxins, produce clotting proteins, and help with absorption of fats-soluble vitamins.”

Early symptoms include nose bleeds, yellow discoloration, weight loss, decreased appetite. More serious conditions that appear at an advanced stage include abdominal swelling, swelling of the legs, gynecomastia (men developing breasts) and impotence. The complications that could result from cirrhosis include kidney Failure and liver cancer.

Ethiopian Government: We are Not Aware of Any Reports of Toxic Spills

While Poly-GCL refused to comment when contacted, Ethiopian Government through the director of licensing at the federal ministry of mines and petroleum Mr Ketsela Tadesse, said it was not aware of any reports of spillages, also observing that there were no permanent residents in the vicinity of the gas project because people in the area were pastoral farmers.

“We can emphatically state that all the gas wells at Calub and elsewhere in the Ogaden Basin are sealed, safe and secured according to international standards,” said Tadesse. Despite this denial, medical experts in the area have claimed that most cases of the mysterious disease have emanated from the area around the gas project.

But there is also a possibility that the toxins were left by companies that operated in the area many years back before the arrival of the Chinese company. Extensive oil and gas deposits were first discovered in the area almost 90 years ago. The first exploration was undertaken by American Standard Oil in 1920. Further explorations by Tenneco also of America in 1974, led to the discovery of almost 68 million cubic meters of gas.

Could Disease X be Crimea-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever?

Whereas many in the affected areas are blaming such exploration as the cause, there is an implausible belief in some quarters that the disease could be ‘Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a viral disease common in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia with sporadic outbreaks in Kosovo, Albania, Iran and Turkey over the years. Its symptoms include bleeding from the upper bowel, blood in the urine nosebleeds and bleeding from the gums.

Even though some of these symptoms could be similar to those of the mysterious disease , a number of factors rule out the possibility of CCHF. One is that the latter has been localized in one area for a very long time unlike CCHF which tends to spread fast across a wide geographical area if not controlled.

Ethiopia’s 2001 Struggle With A Strange Illness

It is not the first time a mysterious disease is being reported in Ethiopia. In early 2000s, a strange illness was reported in the Northern region after people living in the villages began to develop swollen abdomens, losing weight and showing signs of liver disease.

In some cases all members of one family were wiped out by the disease. In 2005 a multidisciplinary team made of Ethiopian medical experts, environmentalists and anthropologists supported by the US Centers for Disease Control, began to carry out investigations in the area to determine the cause.

After two years, the investigations ruled out infectious disease and suggested that the disease may be related to toxins in the diets of the locals. Although no definite cause was found the experts were able to narrow down the list of possibilities. They discovered that grain samples gathered from household farms contained low levels of plant based liver toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). Their conclusion was that the cause of the outbreak was exposure to a toxic PA-contaminated grain or animal product.

L'articolo Mysterious “Disease X” Strikes in Ethiopia: What is it? proviene da InsideOver.

Pakistan has a polio epidemic. The number of polio virus cases in the country grew to an alarming 119 in 2019 from just eight in 2018, laying bare the utter failure of the Pakistani government to carry out a successful immunization drive.

Polio Is Wiped Out Worldwide: Except In Pakistan And Afghanistan

There are only two countries in the world where polio cases are still being reported: Pakistan and Afghanistan. The border region between the two countries has become a breeding ground for polio. The remote area, which is inaccessible due to its harsh mountainous terrain, has become a challenge for the government’s immunization drive.

Just last week, a 22-month-old child died from the virus. In another case, two separate cases of a 15-month-old and a 17-month-old were reported in the media as well. The cases are being reported from all across Pakistan—in the south and north. The reason: failure of the government to implement a successful polio vaccination program.

‘Matter Of Shame’

Last month, Pakistan kicked off a three-day National Immunization Campaign where Prime Minister Imran Khan urged parents to ensure their children are vaccinated and termed the presence of the virus as a “matter of shame” for the country. The campaign targeted around 39.6 million children.

The country’s National Institute of Health claimed the drive achieved its desire objectives and successfully immunized around 99 percent of the targeted children. However, within weeks of this announcement, four more cases of polio were reported across the country, challenging the government’s claims.

The Curious Case Of Pakistan

The World Health Organization lists lack of infrastructure, remote locations, population movement, conflict and insecurity and resistance to vaccination as some of the major hurdles to eradication of polio in Pakistan.

Despite the challenges, the country has made tremendous progress in immunization over the last two decades. Pakistan was successful in bringing down the number of polio cases from 30,000 in the year 2000 to just eight in 2018. But the virus is currently making resurgence across the country.

Notwithstanding the government’s concerted efforts, various hurdles continue to hamper complete immunization. In the northern most areas, the government faces challenges in the face of remoteness, misinformation campaigns run by the militant organizations, poor infrastructure and harsh climate.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province bordering Afghanistan – a region infamous for being the hotbed of polio in the region—many parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Families in rural communities believe the vaccines are harmful to their children and some even argue that vaccinating a child is against the teaching of Islam, a claim negated by Islamic scholars. This trend, however, is limited to rural areas where the government has had to take extraordinary steps to persuade parents to ensure their kids are vaccinated.

On the other hand, lack of government control in tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan and the presence of terror outfits in the past has also posed challenges. The situation is different in south where widespread malnutrition among children has reduced the effectiveness of anti-polio vaccines.

In addition, the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Polio Eradication in Pakistan highlights the administrative failures. In a report released last year, it said the “increased cases and positive environmental samples are symptoms of a program in crisis. There are serious problems in coordination and implementation and to-date unresolved issues with campaign quality, monitoring, accountability and community engagement.”

As per the findings of TAG, the major causes for failure include inadequate arrangements for supportive supervision, lack of careful analysis on the district and union-council levels, poor focus on super high-risk union councils and irrational utilization of resources.

But most importantly, the report points out the Pakistani government’s inability to build community trust which is further worsened by the administrative issues as it states, the “performance management is ineffective, and micro planning is reported to be underutilized as a key program tool for reviewing target populations at local level in order to maximize systematic coverage.”

L'articolo Pakistan’s Polio Problem proviene da InsideOver.

The “Black Death” that struck mankind in the Middle Ages in 1346 and reaped an estimated 50 to 70 million lives has made a comeback.

Having infected close to 50,000 humans over the last two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) has now listed the bubonic plague as a re-emerging disease.

And there is a bleak note from the journal of National Center for Biotechnology Information, an organization under the umbrella of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

“Plague, in the Middle Ages known as Black Death, continues to occur…in many countries, in Africa, Asia South America and even the USA,” the organization said.

While the disease is a threat, antibiotics have proven to be an effective cure, but only if administered quickly.

That is especially true of the pneumonic plague, the most deadly of the three strains where failure to give a patient antibiotics within 24 hours of symptoms can result in death.

The pneumonic strain had not been active since early in the last century until it broke out in India in Surat in west-central India, population about 4.4 million. Surat is famous for its textile industry and the largest centre of man-made fibre in the country.

But in 1994, it became famous for something else, an epidemic of the Black Death that killed more than 100 people in a few days.

According to a New York Times Sept. 24 article that year, the pneumonic plague had not raised its deadly spectre for decades, with experts saying they could not even recall where the last outbreak had occurred.

There were a few cases of the bubonic plague reported, but not the deadly pneumonic strain. But the bubonic plague can lead to the pneumonic strain through the lymph nodes, which then causes bacteria to form in the lungs, bringing on pneumonic pneumonia.

It is spread rapidly to others through respiratory droplets in coughing and sneezing and that is why patients are quarantined.

It is the bubonic plague that wreaked havoc in the mid-1300s as it was transmitted through droplets from person to person and people were infected by bites from fleas hosted by rats.

Untreated, the bubonic strain kills about 50 per cent of those who contract the disease.

While antibiotics are largely responsible for dampening down the disease, superbugs are beginning to become immune to antibiotics. As well, the drugs are not available everywhere or in time to save lives.

The disease is transmitted by fleas that often infect rodents like rats and squirrels, and other animals such as rabbits, so insecticides are employed to control them.

But the World Health Organization is on record as saying that “only after the fleas have been controlled should rodent control be considered, because infected fleas, which feed on warm blood, quickly leave their dead hosts, spreading the disease to humans.”

Chillingly, experts said in a report that there is a high risk of a worldwide pandemic of some sort.

“There is a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people,” the report stated.

Such a pandemic broke out in 1918. Known as the Spanish flu, it killed 50-to 100 million, rivalling the Black Death in ferocity. More people died in a year than the Black Death in four years and more than perished in the First World War.

And alarmingly, the report says that we’re are not ready to battle a pandemic, be it bubonic plague, flu or other health threat.

“The world is not prepared,” the report stated. “For too long, we have allowed a cycle of panic and neglect when it comes to pandemics: we ramp up efforts when there is a serious threat, then quickly forget about them when the threat subsides. It is well past time to act.”

The World Health Organization has issued a clarion call to world leaders, urging them to take measures such as creating long-range disaster plans, putting more emphasis on United Nations co-ordination of diseases and establishing preparation systems.

Yet another scenario – experts have warned that the bubonic plague could be released as a cloud over a city, killing thousands.

The Center for Disease Control in the United States lists the bubonic plague as one the highest biological risks for use as a weapon that would have a major public health impact.

It would appear the Black Death is still a threat, almost 700 years after it first reaped the whirlwind.

L'articolo ‘Black Death’ Rears its Ugly Head Again: A Plague Pandemic proviene da InsideOver.

This documentary is dedicated tho all those people, who do not forget those who already forgot them.

Alzheimer is a disease affecting more and more people in the world. The most terrible among its symptoms is the lost of memories, the inexorable dissolution of a life. There is not a cure yet for this suffering: it can be fought only through research and, above all, love and dedication.

The documentary recounts with  sensitivity the dismay of those who see their familiars turning into a shadow, and it  focuses on the courage of those who assist a beloved person who is slowly deleting them from his memories.

Incredulity, desperation and resignation, dreams melting like snow in the sun: that is what Alzheimer brings in a family. However, from that darkness, you can see invincible loves emerging, loves that not even Alzheimer can take away.

It is the love of “Those who stay”.

by Marco Toscani – Winner of the Reporter Day 2017

L'articolo Those who stay proviene da InsideOver.