Medical officials downplay Pemba disease

Government health officials in Zanzibar have played down reports that a mysterious disease had killed several people on the archipelago's northern island of Pemba. The permanent secretary in Zanzibar's Ministry of Health, Dr Makame Shauri, told IRIN on Friday that the reports of large numbers of people infected and five people killed were merely exaggerations in the press. He said that the ministry had received reports of 39 cases of the disease but there were was no information of deaths specifically caused by the disease. However, he said the ministry and the World Health Organisation had agreed on Friday to call in more experts to conduct a detailed study into the matter. He said the situation was not that bad. "Those that were affected have been receiving multi-vitamins and physiotherapy and are now recuperating. Some of those who were paralysed can stand and move," he added. The exact causes of the disabilities appear sketchy, but health officials on the island have said that peripheral neuropathy, a common neurological disorder resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves, was most likely. The disease's symptoms, which include weakness, numbness, paresthesia (abnormal sensations such as burning, tickling, pricking or tingling) and pain in the arms, hands, legs and feet, fit many of the reports coming from Pemba. Local news reports earlier in the week had suggested that a mysterious disease was spreading across the semiautonomous archipelago and had killed five and infected more than 100 people.