By Dickens Wasonga, Kisumu-Kenya

The Kenya Medical Research Institute[KEMRI] in partnership with the  America’s Center for Disease Control [CDC] has scaled up efforts to control the alarming prevalence rates of bilharzia along Kenya’s Lake Victoria riparian districts.The  renewed efforts targets to benefit  over 400,000 primary school going children within the selected eight districts where the disease was found to be  common. 

The scientist enjoys a cup of porridge with the pupils at the school.

Currently the team which includes scientists working with other relevant ministries are administering a drug that is able to  control  bilharzia which mostly affect people who are in constant contact with contaminated water.

A study carried out in the region revealed that most fishermen and children from schools near the lake were the hardest hit by the disease.

The program launched last year by the Kenya Medical Research Institute in collaboration with the America’s Centers for Disease Control will cover over 200 schools along the shores of  Lake Victoria .

Kenya Medical Research Institute Principal Research Officer Pauline Mwinzi said  that Sh 150 million will be used to finance  the program in Nyanza Province in the next five years.

The researcher  who was accompanied by KEMRI Research officer in the region, Elizabeth Matei and the assistant communication officer John Riaga were  at Agok Primary School in Rarieda District to  supervise the drug administration in the school.

Rarieda is amongst the eight districts in Nyanza where the exercise is ongoing. The other includes Bondo , Kisumu east and West , Kisumu municipality, Rachuonyo, Homa -Bay and Nyakach districts.

According to the scientist, between 10-100 percent of people living along Lake Victoria are affected with the bilharzia parasite thus the  need to eradicate the scourge in the region.

Bilharzia affects 7 million Kenyans in 62 Districts majority from Nyanza region and 12 million people are at risk of the infection; she said.

A drug known as praziquantel, whose dosage is determined by weight and height was being given to the  pupils at risk of infection by the  parasite.

Although the disease has a low mortality rate, schistosomiasis can damage internal organs and, in children, impair growth and development adding that It is the second most socio-economic devastating parasitic disease after malaria which need more attention.

The pupils being fed with porridge before the drug is given as required.

Since the program was launched late last year, at least  two teachers from all the 225 primary schools identified in Nyanza province have been trained to benefit from the program.

A teacher administer the drug to one of the pupil at Agok primary school in Rarieda.

So far we have managed to train over 200 teachers from schools within this province to administer the drugs to pupils and are optimistic that we will soon complete the training so that many pupils across the Province benefit; she added.

Community health workers who will help in the administration of the drugs to the community  have also been trained.

We have covered eight districts in this Province among them Bondo, Rarieda, Homabay, Kisumu East, Kisumu West, Kisumu Municipality, Nyakach and Rachuonyo; she added.

She said in Rarieda and Bondo Districts, 60 schools, 30 from each District will benefit from the program.

” Schools are  targeted because our previous studies demonstrated a link  between school proximity to the lake and the prevalence of the disease, suggesting that the lake is the primary source of schistosomiasis transmission in this region: said Mwinzi.

The Scientist said prevalence levels can go up to 100% and school children are the most affected.

The disease as referred   to as schistosomiasis is caused by worm parasites transmitted by snails.

Those  whose activities force them to come into contact with water where infected snails live and where there may be transmission going on is likely to suffer from the disease.

KENYA: Risking TB in Nyanza’s gold mines

Photo: Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN

Research shows that gold miners are at particularly high risk of TB

NYATIKE, 6 April 2011 (PlusNews) – Timothy Omuya spends most days chipping away at stones in search of gold and inhaling fine particles of dust without protective gear in western Kenya’s mines. It was not a huge surprise, therefore, when he tested positive for tuberculosis.

His local hospital put him on TB medication, but his long working hours meant he did not stick to the schedule.

“At times I fail to take them because I don’t go in good time to take new ones from the hospital when I finish the ones I have,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “Here at the mines, we work both day and night, so the time you are supposed to go and take your medicine, you are deep down in the mine.”

What Omuya did not realize was the risk to his family; his wife and youngest child are now both infected. His wife Peres says she and the child adhere to their medications strictly, but fears that if Omuya continues to miss doses of his medication, he may re-infect them.

Fatalism

According to Ruth Muga, a senior nursing officer at the Nyatike District Hospital, many miners have a fatalistic attitude towards death because of the dangerous nature of their work.

“We counsel many of them who come here and they tell us the reason they default is because they are busy; also many of them cite the dangerous nature of the mines as the reason they don’t take drugs,” she said. “They will simply tell you that the mines can collapse and kill them any time. To them, death is always lingering somewhere.”

Julius Owino, another gold miner in Nyatike, is HIV-positive and knows that he risks death every day in the mines, but says mining is the only way he knows how to feed his family.

“We risk our lives to earn a living and we must earn it until we no longer live; I think we are careless with our lives,” he added. “Many of us are very sick and do not seek treatment… at times I ask myself why we are so busy chasing money until it kills us.”

On top of widespread TB, Nyatike, where most residents earn less than US$1 a day, also has one of the country’s highest levels of HIV; it is located in Nyanza Province, with an HIV prevalence of over 15 percent. Sex work is prevalent around the mines.

High risk

Joseph Sitienei, head of Kenya’s National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Programme, says miners and their families are considered a high-risk group for TB.

“The dusty conditions there increase chances of getting tuberculosis amongst miners and the crowded nature of mines and poor ventilation provide a perfect ground for the spread of TB; remember, these people go back home and interact with others and therefore they can very easily spread the disease in big communities.”

According to a 2010 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, mining for gold was associated with considerably higher TB incidence than other mining.

“The implication for policy is not to close mines but to reduce levels of risk,” said the authors, who recommended that healthcare programmes for miners facilitate earlier diagnosis and improve working conditions to reduce the risk of incident infection, for example by reducing poor working conditions, cramped hostel living quarters, or exposure to silica dust.

Sitienei noted that the government was working to build awareness of TB in high-risk communities, to encourage people to visit health centres for screening and to ensure those who began treatment adhered to it.

“When people don’t get full treatment, they risk developing drug resistant tuberculosis and even those who are on medication can be re-infected by those who default on treatment,” he said.

Kenya ranks 13th on the list of 22 high-burden TB countries in the world and has the fifth-highest burden in Africa.

ko/kr/mw

source http://www.irinnews.org

The five Nordic countries have agreed on a Nordic declaration of solidarity. Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre commented: “This is yet another building block in our Nordic cooperation.”

The foreign ministers from the five countries reached agreement on the declaration of solidarity at a meeting of Nordic foreign ministers in Helsinki on Tuesday 5 April. The Helsinki declaration sets out that it is natural for the Nordic countries to cooperate in a spirit of solidarity to meet challenges in the foreign and security policy area. This is particularly relevant in the face of potential risks, including natural and man-made disasters, cyber attacks and terrorist attacks.

“This political declaration must now be translated into concrete measures, for example by building up a Nordic resource network against cyber attacks,” said Mr Støre.

In the declaration, the five countries state that: “Should a Nordic country be affected, the others will, upon request from that country, assist with relevant means.” Further, this enhanced Nordic cooperation will be in keeping with each individual country’s security and defence policy, and will complement existing European and Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

The idea of a Nordic declaration of solidarity was first put forward by Thorvald Stoltenberg in a report to the Nordic foreign ministers in February 2009. In this report, he proposed that the Nordic countries should make a mutually binding declaration of solidarity.

By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Duty Press Officer: April 5 2011

COTE D’IVOIRE: A changing of the guard

Photo: Lassine Serme

A rebel commander in northern Côte d’Ivoire saluting Guillaume Soro (file photo)

DAKAR, 6 April 2011 (IRIN) – “The Forces Nouvelles played a very important role in our victory and that has to be taken into account,” one of Alassane Ouattara’s leading supporters acknowledged as the news from Abidjan pointed to Laurent Gbagbo’s imminent departure.

For the past four months Ouattara has been recognized internationally as Côte d’Ivoire’s elected president, but his final access to executive power owes much to the force of arms. While military support from the UN and France may have proved pivotal in destroying Gbagbo’s last arsenals, the former rebels known as Forces Nouvelles (FN) made up most of the newly formed Forces Républicaines de Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI), which pushed south into the main city Abidjan after winning remarkably easy victories in the centre, east and south of the country in the past week.

Who are the military forces behind Ouattara and how will they proceed once their side takes power?

At a recent celebratory rally in the political capital Yamoussoukro, Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro introduced the crowd to several FN senior commanders: Soumaila Bakayoko, Cherif Ousmane, Tuo Fozié and Touré Hervé, saluted as being among the architects of the FRCI’s victories. Ouattara supporters also talk of the key role played by Col Miche Gueu. These men are associated with the September 2002 rebellion, which nearly dislodged Gbagbo. The FN – a collective of three rebel factions – made offensives against Korhogo, Bouaké and Abidjan. Their secretary-general and main public voice was a then 30-year-old Soro, known primarily as a former student leader.

Ivoirian critics of Ouattara and Soro have not welcomed the sense of déjà vu. “This man is meant to be a prime minister, but he is forever talking about the need for a military offensive and moving on Abidjan,” a man in the Yopougon District said. Many observers noted the difference between Ouattara’s rhetoric and that of Soro in the weeks after the disputed November 2010 presidential election, with the prime minister much quicker to push for a military solution.

The FN included soldiers, particularly northerners, defecting from the national armed forces, but also combatants from outside Côte d’Ivoire and the `dozo’, traditional warrior hunters – said to have mystical powers – who have long acted as informal community police.

In 2006 one of the FN leaders, Martin Kouakou Fofié, was hit with UN sanctions over allegations of child recruitment, abductions, sexual abuse of women, arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings by troops he commanded.

Whatever compromises were made in numerous peace accords signed in the years since the rebellion, the FN have effectively retained control of national territory in the west, north and centre. A longstanding concern of Gbagbo supporters and neutrals has been the existence of a state within a state, whose sovereignty has gone largely unchallenged.

Rebuilding

For Vincent Gnizako, a long-time Ouattara supporter who heads the Paris branch of Ouattara’s Rassemblememt des Républicains (RDR) party, the incoming government will be taking over “a new Côte d’Ivoire that needs to be reconstructed after 10 years going backwards”. Gnizako said the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Paix (RHDP) would supply the ministerial expertise, but the military forces could not be overlooked.

Ouattara and Soro now head a broad-based political-military coalition. The RHDP brings together the RDR, the Parti démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire and several smaller parties. Ouattara backers told IRIN his first priority would be national reconciliation.

Pro-Ouattara activists have reacted defensively to mounting criticism of their combatants in recent weeks. “The FRCI are establishing peace throughout the country,” Maurice Guikahué, a senior figure in the RHDP, told IRIN. “The FRCI are disciplined. They do not commit violent acts; they respect human rights.”

Guikahué said the FRCI had been through regions of the country dominated by Gbagbo’s own Bété ethnic group “without laying a hand on a single person”, instead holding meetings with residents and explaining they were there “solely to establish peace”. He called reports of crimes by the FRCI “propaganda”.

But Ouattara opponents paint a damning picture of serious human rights violations by at least some of the pro-Ouattara forces that have taken over towns and neighbourhoods in recent weeks. Speaking from Abidjan, a youth with the pro-Gbagbo Jeunes Patriotes told IRIN: “ I have been to different districts of the city – Koumassi, Abobo, Port-Bouët – and I know what has been going on: looting, rapes and people having their throats cut. We know who the perpetrators are and they are doing this out in the open.”

Human Rights Watch has documented extra-judicial executions by Ouattara’s forces allegedly against Gbagbo supporters and combatants detained in Abidjan territory taken by Ouattara forces in recent weeks. “The killing of civilians by pro-Ouattara forces, at times with apparent ethnic or political motivation… risks becoming a crime against humanity should it become widespread or systematic,” HRW says.

A local journalist told IRIN that on 5 April pro-Ouattara forces threatened workers at an Abidjan office building. The forces lined up civilian security guards and ordered them to undress, he said. “They fired at office doors to break in and ordered people to hand over their car keys. They took off in two luxury cars and said they’d be back.”

International Crisis Group has said worldwide support for Ouattara could unravel if the military that’s behind him acts unlawfully. “[They] should take all measures to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. They should understand that international support for Ouattara’s election victory, and his legitimacy, will quickly evaporate if their military campaign becomes responsible for mass atrocity crimes.”

“Ouattara’s side should avoid any kind of revenge talk,” Crisis Group senior West Africa analyst Rinaldo Depagne told IRIN. “The pro-Ouattara forces know they will be watched closely and this should constrain them, but the problem in the far west is there are not as many witnesses so they could carry out exactions.”

The RDR’s Gnizako acknowledged possible excesses on all sides, but warned against premature condemnation of the FRCI for the recent killling of civilians in the western town of Duékoué. He pointed out that circumstances were still not clear and a large number of armed, pro-Gbagbo militia have been active in the town. He stressed Ouattara’s willingness to hold an inquiry. “If people from our side were involved, they should be brought to trial. Justice must be done.”

cs/np

source http://www.irinnews.org