Photo: Parwin Arz/IRIN

Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal disease, influenza and cholera

BANGKOK,� – Health authorities and aid workers are racing to contain outbreaks of cholera, influenza and diarrhoea in three provinces in Papua New Guinea which have killed over 100 people and infected over 6,000, officials say.

Victor Golpak, coordinator for the national Department of Health, said workers were still trying to stop the spread of the unrelated outbreaks, especially cholera, which was detected for the first time in the country in July.

�People are now aware that cholera is a basic hygiene problem and we can all contain it if we wash our hands,� Golpak told IRIN from Lae, the capital of northern Morobe Province.

�That�s our big drive. We want to get the message across because this is a new disease in Papua New Guinea, and people don�t understand it,� he said.

Golpak said the authorities still did not know the origin of the cholera outbreak, first reported in two coastal villages in Morobe Province. They suspect the highly contagious disease was brought in by Southeast Asian workers at a logging operation in the area, or aboard a fishing vessel, he said.

�Once we identify the DNA of the organism, we can tell where it came from, but most likely it came from Southeast Asia,� he said. �We will investigate later, after we contain the problem.�

Cholera, seasonal influenza and bloody diarrhoea caused by shigella bacteria have all been detected in Morobe as well as the neighbouring Eastern Highlands Province. The Gulf Province, to Morobe�s south, has recorded cases of influenza and diarrhoea.

The cholera has spread to Lae, and Golpak said the fear was that it would be transmitted further by people travelling out of the city on the Highlands Highway, the main road connecting the coast to the country�s heavily-populated Highlands Region.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which is providing technical support to the government, has so far recorded 20 cholera deaths from 277 suspected cases, 40 bloody diarrhoea-related deaths from 1,155 suspected cases, and 60 deaths from over 4,700 suspected influenza cases.

The cases are all classified as suspected, since confirmation is difficult, said Cathy Williams, a WHO communications officer in Lae, citing challenges in gathering data from remote areas and poor reporting of cases.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A map of Papua New Guinea and surrounding countries

Containment efforts

Poor health facilities in remote areas, as well as a lack of clean water and basic sanitation are major challenges in containing the diseases, according to aid workers and officials.

Golpak said cholera usually peaked and declined in about three months, but it was important to continue containment efforts.

�Our efforts involve awareness campaigns on basic hygiene and� to assist communities to get proper water and sanitation. So that�s what we have been doing in the last few weeks.�

Peter Raynes, country director for CARE International in Papua New Guinea, said the remoteness of areas in the mountainous, jungle-covered country meant weaker health services, since getting supplies to locations and persuading health workers to remain there was difficult.

�The other issue is that there isn�t a good electricity supply and transport is very expensive and difficult. So in remote areas, health services tend to be weak. There�s not enough personnel, equipment and medication,� Raynes said.

CARE is working with the authorities in Eastern Highlands Province, and will be sending teams next week to remote communities in areas close to the Morobe border to help improve water and sanitation, he said.

�Safe water supplies are very limited generally in Papua New Guinea, both in rural areas and also in settlements around the major towns. Also sanitation is quite weak as well� so the conditions are there to allow the spread of disease,� he said.

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Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Only 23 percent of Afghanistan�s estimated 27 million people have access to clean drinking water, according to UNICEF

KABUL, ) – Twenty-eight deaths from cholera and/or acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have been reported in Afghanistan in the past two months, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said.

At least 673 cases of AWD and/or cholera had been reported in 11 of the country�s 34 provinces, it said.

According to the World Health Organization, cholera, which is rarely reported in Afghanistan, is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of the bacterium vibrio cholerae. The disease is characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of AWD that can lead to death by severe dehydration and kidney failure.

There are strong diagnostic similarities between AWD and cholera – hence the difficulty health workers have in distinguishing between the two.

Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatimie, in a Kabul press conference on 12 September, said MoPH was relying on NGOs and partner agencies for help, but sounded an optimistic note: �There is no outbreak of cholera but only a few single cases. The Health Ministry is capable of diagnosing and controlling cholera.�

However, health officials in the northern province of Samangan have called for emergency assistance to thwart a possible cholera outbreak in Dara-e-Sof District.

�Over the past three days cholera has killed five people in Dara-e-Sof. Unless preventive measures are implemented urgently it could spread to other areas,� said Abdul Hameed, director of Samangan�s health department.

MoPH said medical supplies, including antibiotics and sachets of oral rehydration salts, had been dispatched to cholera-affected provinces and more support would be provided if necessary.

The disease has also been reported in the eastern province of Nangarhar where flash floods affected about 4,000 people on 31 August, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 2 September. OCHA had warned about an outbreak of malaria from stagnant flood waters. Water sources usually get contaminated during floods.

Lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation as well as poor awareness about personal hygiene appear to be major causes of cholera and AWD.

The UN Children�s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that only 23 percent of Afghanistan�s estimated 27 million people have access to clean drinking water and 12 percent to safe sanitation, and that annually up to 50,000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases.

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Photo: Hilary Uguru/IRIN

Flooding in the north during this year’s rainy season has contributed to the risk of cholera breaking out (file photo)

KANO,� – Floods in northern Nigeria�s Adamawa state have left over 2,000 people displaced, many of them with no access to clean drinking water, leaving officials worried about a potential cholera outbreak.

Five districts � Fufore, Demsa, Yola North, Yola South and Numan � were flooded in August and early September, when the River Lagdo burst its banks, according to the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Demsa and Fufore districts, along with nearby Maiha, were hit with a cholera outbreak in August and September; the illness killed 70 people out of over 300 infected, according to local government official Yahaya Hamman-Julde.

Adamawa state health commissioner Zainab Baba Kwanci says the outbreak was caused by floodwaters contaminating wells used for drinking water.

“We are really worried about the possibility of the resurgence of the [cholera] outbreak in flood-hit areas and our priority now is averting that looming disaster,” Aliyu Sambo, head of NEMA in the northeast, told IRIN.

There is not enough clean water for the displaced, most of whom are living in temporary shelters or in local schools, according to NEMA.

“We are doing our best to provide clean water for the displaced but our efforts are limited to a few trucks a day so people have to [turn to] unsafe water [to meet their needs],” Sambo said. “It is an emergency situation and there is no time to sink boreholes, so we have to make do with what we can provide.�

Nigeria is among four West African countries where less than half of the population can access safe drinking water, according to the UN.

Health commissioner Kwanci said a health worker strike over pay conditions across the state worsened the recent cholera outbreak, as many of the victims were unable to seek medical care.

Medical workers across the state began an indefinite strike on 25 June to protest the state government�s 9 June suspension of an improved salary structure.

aa /aj/np source.www.irinnews.org

ABUJA, – In June 150 prisoners escaped from Enugu state prison in southeastern Nigeria, beating wardens and raping female prisoners before they fled.

A few weeks earlier eight inmates reportedly were killed in another jailbreak, at Agodi prison in Ibadan in the southwest.

Escape may appear to some prisoners to be the only way out, given that some two-thirds of Nigeria�s prisoners have been detained without trial, according to a report by the Centre for Social and Legal Studies (CSLS) in Abuja, which calls on the government to pass criminal justice reform legislation immediately.

The May report, �Justice sector reform and human rights in Nigeria�, says in the Kuje prison in the capital Abuja 85 percent of the 622 prisoners have not been tried. A 2008 Amnesty International report estimated the overall number of detainees without trials at 65 percent.

The researchers saw prisoners who have been awaiting trial for nine years.

Why

All stages of the criminal justice system contribute to delays, said Yemi Akinseye George, senior lecturer in legal studies at the University of Ibadan and co-author of the report.

Police often arrest and detain people on �holding charges� while they collect evidence, George said. �That is wrong. It is illegal�It is against the constitution.�

Bail conditions are often impossible to meet, said Adekunle Ojo, a human rights lawyer and vice president of the Nigeria Bar Association.

With few government-subsidized legal aid programmes, prisoners often cannot afford a lawyer, said Professor George, leaving courts in a bind. �People cannot afford assistance, but courts cannot release them when there are no lawyers to take up their cases.�

In some cases, ineptitude has led to the loss of hundreds of files, the report says.

When a case does go to court, witnesses � with no official protection scheme in place � are often too frightened to give evidence, leaving cases hanging, in some cases for years.

With no trial, many prisoners end up spending more time detained than they would have under a conviction, according to human rights lawyer Ojo. Minor offences such as petty theft or traffic offences incur a maximum six-month sentence in Nigeria.

Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa says the problem lies in the structure of the criminal justice system, whereby the federal government owns and operates prisons but state courts sentence prisoners.

�I cannot sit here and predict the volume of people that will be taken to the prisons because they come from the state courts, the magistrate courts, the high courts, the sharia courts, the sanitary courts, etc. All these [institutions] pour people into the prisons.�

Disease, torture, squalor

With the ensuing overcrowding, most prisoners sleep on the floor and are provided with minimal food rations, the reports say. Overcrowding and poor sanitation leads to a high incidence of disease such as tuberculosis, skin infections and malaria, and most prisons have no health facilities, says Amnesty International. Most prisons also have no functioning toilets, researchers say.

On top of overcrowding, torture and ill-treatment are common, CSLS researchers found, noting: �beating often leading to the death� of inmates, and ��whipping, mostly with cow-hide whips and batons was a common way of punishing stubborn prisoners�.

Almost 80 percent of Nigerian prisoners surveyed said they had been beaten, threatened with weapons or tortured in prison cells, according to Amnesty International�s 2008 report.

Reform

University lecturer George said such appalling conditions point to the need for urgent reform; he said pledges by successive governments to implement reforms have yielded �scant results�.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo set up a committee to propose improvements in prison conditions. This committee drew up reform recommendations, including detailed updates to the criminal code � which is over 100 years old � and to criminal procedural law, which dates to the 1960s. They drafted a bill over two years ago and the national assembly has yet to take it up.

�The most urgent thing that should be done is to push for the passage of this bill,� George stressed.

Only one state � Lagos � has so far reformed its criminal justice law, he pointed out, with the reforms already helping reduce prisoner numbers, he said.

George says the Attorney General must push harder on the bill. �[He] is supposed to provide leadership on this issue and make the national assembly feel the bill is urgent, but he isn�t doing so.�

But Peter Akper, adviser to the Attorney General told IRIN his team has approached the Justice and Human Rights committees to speed up the bill�s passing.

The government is making some progress on other fronts, Akper said, referring to a programme to eliminate overcrowding run by the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, that has cleared a backlog of some 5,000 cases in recent years, he said.

Other ongoing reforms include reviewing sentencing guidelines, he said.

George said such changes mark progress but �there is no alternative� to the legislation for system-wide change.

aj/gc/np source.www.irinnews.org

By Rev. Lainie Dowell

“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
Quoted: Marxist site, Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, Founders of Marxism

“In any case, the bureaucracy can be removed only by a revolutionary force. And, as always, there will be fewer victims the more bold and decisive is the attack. To prepare this and stand at the head of the masses in a favorable historic situation – that is the task of the Soviet section of the Fourth International.”
Quoted: Leon Trotsky, Founder of Leninism

Even if Barack Obama had not been elected in 2008 to serve in the top office in the free world, the Office of the President of the United States, he – with the help of the DEMS and New Left, aka the Progressives – would still have worked to advance the communist agenda in America and the entire world. He had a lot of help to get where he is and none so helpful as from among black people of all stations of life.

If you notice Barack Obama’s demeanor when he speaks into a camera, you’ll understand that his main message is not directed to American patriots but to his waiting comrades in America and across the globe. He is not being opposed on the basis of his race. He is black. And what’s more Obama knows that to be true. And, contrary to all the many charges of racism being hurled about from his side of the aisle, Obama also knows it is more than just the white folk who oppose the ongoing actions of the Obama Administration. Americans have come together to take to the streets across this nation to save this nation from Obama’s unconstitutional and ungodly revolutionary takeover attempts such as never before experienced in the contemporary domestic life of Americans.

A Challenge to the Young Black Folk Chained to Barack Obama

There is still no free lunch. However, your meal tickets have already been bought and paid for many times over through the broken backs of your grandpaps who were hunched over while working in the hot, steamy cotton fields, steel mills, and shipyards; and, also, through your grandmammies who worked in cotton fields while hunched over with the weight of babies on their backs. They went from there to being hunched over hot washing tubs scrubbing dirty clothes for others, and kneeling down on hard dirty floors getting up that dirt for a meager day’s pay just so your momma and daddy could live, eat, grow up, and bring you into this world. They all made it through prayer, the grace of God, and hard, back-breaking work. They have come from out in the cotton fields with no pay whatsoever to moving up to work in corporate boardrooms with more money than you could ever think about. And they did it just so you could have a much better life than they. But you want more without ever trying to make your contribution to the family and the world or even so much as to give back a “Thank you” whether sincere or not.

Many of you have gained access to the finest schools in this nation and the world. You have acquired the best that life has to offer in terms of faith, clothing, food, shelter, transportation, education, travel, and lots of money in the bank. And now many of you think you have arrived and that you can leave behind the common sense training your family and life have tried to teach you. However, lessons learned are no good until and unless you take them to heart; and, also, commit yourself to reach back and teach forward, because as long as one lags behind, you will never arrive.

As long as you refuse to listen to anybody else who speaks with your best interest at heart, then you can climb every rung of every ladder in this world and outer space, but you will never reach the top, if you do not learn that no matter how high you climb, you will always have to start again at the first rung from that place each time. That’s one little known law of life that comes with living. Patience cannot be bought at any price. It comes with going through and overcoming the hard times. And hard times will surely come and stick around as long as you live above this ground.

When the bombs are falling all around you, that is not the time to begin to build a bomb shelter. Life experiences are there to prepare you to withstand adversities that seek to make you go astray. And, as King Solomon, the wisest man on earth said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” You who are looking for peace, respect, prosperity, and the chance to have your voice heard in the midst of so many voices, need to know that you are being heard — and seen. The noises you hear around you have come about because those voices you hear have not been truthful, and others are trying hard to stop them from going forth to corrupt you who remain waiting to come forward. You must stop, look, listen and — yes — even make judgments now. There is a definite difference between what is right and wrong. With right thinking there is peace and harmony. With wrong thinking there is chaos and confusion.

Slaves used to beat their sons and daughters in their huts and fields, because they knew that any disobedience to their Master slaveholder meant the difference between life and death. And, because they did not want their children killed at the hands of the Marsta for even signs of disobedience, many slave women picked up the strap themselves knowing they, at least, would have mercy and stop woppin’ the child at some point in that brutal training. Today, many of the black children are rejecting even the loving training. Some might hate their parents, pastors, leaders, and overseers. But just look around and see. They are still alive and making their way forward in this life. How do you think you made it thus far?

Many of you are still depending on your folk for not only the necessities of life but also for those things you want knowing you do not need them. Yet you receive them. You need to go back! Repent. Start with telling your folk “I am sorry.” Many moms and dads have silently sacrificed so much and pushed you forward by their prayers, as you well know.

In too many homes, moms have to scrape the bottom of the pot to give you the last drop of food and they lick the residue off the spoon while praying to God that you got your fill. Dads have jumped down into a whole lot of ditches and dug deeper holes just to work to make a decent wage to take care of their family. They worked even knowing you resented them coming back home late at night from work and asking you to take out the trash. Sons and daughters are a blessing from God from the start. But parents make them accursed when they either make excuses for their children’s failings along their life’s journey or else jump in to clean up their messes. But hard work and hits and misses never killed anybody who wanted to be somebody who could help everybody. Do you know who you are? Have you asked? Have you conducted a genealogical search? Do you know that you are somebody?

Don’t Be Quick to Jump on A Wagon Based on Race Alone

Stop and consider. We know that we have raised highly intelligent young people. So we know that you know a hustle and a scam when you see one. Yet, you have gathered together like lemmings to run towards a steep cliff to the Pied Piper, Obama’s, tune of “Yes We Can,” instead of opening up your ears to understand his true message that the “We” does not include you. This is all about Obama and him putting over his planned agenda to CHANGE the United States Constitution and HOPE you aren’t smart enough to catch on before he accomplishes that sinister plan. If that were not so, he would have had no need to falsely accuse people of “smearing” him while knowing they were telling the truth about him. What’s more, had Obama had America’s interest at heart, he never would have thought to conspire to turn this nation upside down — shove it down our throats — and expect to not meet up with opposition from Americans of every hue.

There has been a lot of talk on TV, twitter, blogs, FOX TV (mostly), newspapers, and workplaces about how Barack Obama is violating our Constitution. Nevertheless, Obama continues to nonchalantly strip away the political boundaries placed by our forefathers. Our legislators have stepped aside and allowed him to do that even though they know he is not above the law any more than previous white presidents or any man, woman, boy or girl. And, Obama ought not get a pass on the basis of his race, black.

No excuse is good enough to not hold Obama accountable for the rampant chaos and division which has surfaced in America worse than during the dismal days of black power, black nationalists, black Muslims, KKK, Jim Crow, and during the detestable days of separate restrooms and drinking fountains according to race. We are far removed from those horrible days; and, yet, it is this black man, Obama, who insists upon taking all of us back from where our God has brought us FROM.

Indictment of Blacks Who Refuse to Break Free of OBAMACHAINS

This racial division did not start with Barack Obama. However, it will not stop until and unless all Americans reject out of hand all those hyphenations being used to define us as a nationality other than as American, period. In a mere eight months and counting, Obama has yet to demonstrate his intent is to adhere to his Oath of Office to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Instead, he presumes to create a nanny state with him as the father. We are grown folk. He cannot raise us and ought not continue to dictate to us what cars we drive, houses we purchase, foods we eat, doctors we see, salaries corporate execs set for employees (not communist “Worker”), school curricula taught our children, or anything else pertaining to our personal lives. My late mother used to say about people like that, “His mouth is in everything but a hearse.” Don’t you ever stop to wonder why the legislative and judicial branches allow this danger to continue among us?! Have you ever written or phoned to ask? Does anybody you know have a backbone to at least say so?

America is not now nor has it ever been some backwoods banana republic. Americans of all races, creeds, and colors continue to demonstrate their refusal to allow Obama to unilaterally tear down our American traditions, values, morals, and mores with impunity and without accountability. He and his wife, Michelle, have arrogantly stated in so many words that America was nothing until they got into the White House. Really??? Americans, if you do not prepare ahead for the days to come under Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel’s management along with all their unelected czars, then once they fully reveal the truth of their entire agenda, it will be too late to try to turn back the trampled pages of our Constitution. What I want to know is what made them ever think Americans are so gullible that they’d let them get away with it no matter how many people they summon to come when they call via SEIU, ACORN, and their lobbying from out of the White House?

Today’s black youth really do not know anything about racism, except perhaps from what their frustrated college and university professors may have told them. Many of whom have probably never experienced racist acts themselves. And thank God they haven’t. But having black citizens throwing around the term, “racist,” at white folk while pressing for laws to drop from the American vocabulary the term, “Nigger,” and other such words they falsely call “hate speech,” and find to be offensive to black people will not only NOT help to bring about racial harmony but it will also serve to silence all the people in a land where we value freedom of speech so much that it was made an integral part of our Constitution by “Divine Providence” centuries ago.

The answer to people getting along with one another in America is to check your own self; and, also, to not be afraid to hold others accountable in accordance with the laws of God and mankind that are in place to enhance the nation’s promise of “liberty and justice for all” instead of legislators continuing to create laws after the fact to punish every small infraction, because one person said their feelings were hurt because of what somebody said either to them or about them. We already have laws to rectify that.

Now is the time for everybody who loves America to get up and come out against these gangbusters who are creating havoc across America directly from the White House, Capitol, and Senate; and, as well, from local and state capitals and legislatures in the nation. Our freedom of speech will never die so long as one American who is born in this “land of the free and home of the brave” lives to protest tyranny no matter from what quarter it emanates. Our liberty comes from God and is affirmed by our Constitution. The only way anybody can take our God-given rights is if we give them. And I refuse to turn loose what God has given me. God will be here long after all of us are carried off, including any leaders who believe they will live forever. For those who ask, “Where is your God?” I say boldly that God does not force Himself upon anybody. “Seek Him with your whole heart” and you will know beyond any shadow of a doubt when He appears to you, too.

OBAMA, WHERE IS YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE?!

The questions Americans are raising not only about Barack Obama’s birth records but also his school records, transcripts, passports, and papers from when he was a “Harvard Professor,” are key to knowing his constitutional position, credibility, and trustworthiness to serve in the Office of President. Those issues ought not be left dangling with many question marks hanging over our heads, especially as Obama continues to sell out our country. Is he American or isn’t he? Without verifiable proof, we won’t know. Later will be too late.

Moreover, it is nonproductive for anybody who has refused to look into Obama’s recorded past to lambaste people who are uncovering and revealing documentation to alert citizens about Obama’s truly evil agenda for America. Everybody has their piece of this Obama puzzle and many are still working to put their part into their crucial place on the board. Speak up now. Maintain your God-given free will and individuality in a place among so many, because later will be too late, if you don’t!

God bless you. God bless America.

END

According to the Nation, Kenya,

Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Photo/FILE