| DrudgeReportArchives.com | ||
| Today's DrudgeReport.com Drudge's Special Reports | Recent Headlines Popular Headlines Time Line | |
 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  Epidemic of crippling disease spreads in Indian Ocean island Thu Jan 26 2006 10:01:26 ET An epidemic of a crippling and incurable mosquito-borne disease has continued to spread throughout the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, with thousands of new cases reported, a health official said Thursday. Only in the last week more than 5,600 new cases were reported, taking the total number of people infected by "chikungunya" to 22,167 on the French-ruled island since the beginning of the epidemic last March, said Gilles Brucker, director of a government health monitoring institute. "We should expect that the number of cases will pass 30,000," Brucker told AFP. Chikungunya is Swahili for "that which bends up" and refers to the stooped posture of those afflicted by the non-fatal disease for which there is no known vaccine or cure. The disease is "very painful, very crippling for certain persons" and could be "potentially serious for weak and vulnerable patients," Brucker said. In several death certificates issued since the beginning of the month, the disease was "mentioned as a possible cause of the death," he added. Local authorities have decided to postpone for one week students' return to high schools and colleges, initially planned for next Monday after the main summer holiday, in order to decontaminate schools. |
|
The Drudge Report does not own, operate or maintain DrudgeReportArchives.com and is not responsible for it in any way.
Drudge Report : E-mail: drudge@drudgereport.com Matt Drudge's Book: Drudge Manifisto Matt Drudge on social media: Twitter (occasionally) Matt Drudge music: Playlist Home | DMCA | Link Decay General Support: |
