Diarrhoea epidemic in north confirmed

The Pasteur Institute in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui, has confirmed an epidemic of diarrhoea in the northwest of the country where at least 40 people died in late September, an official said on Wednesday. "Of the 24 tests we carried out, 15 revealed the presence of Schigella Dysenteriae pathogen," Dr Antoine Talarmin, the director of the Pasteur Institute, told IRIN. The institute’s laboratory technicians and officials of Medicas Sin Frontreras (MSF-Spain) and Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), inspected the villages of Gouze, Lemouna and Pende from 3 to 8 October and identified the disease. The villages are near Bozoum, a town 384 km northwest of Bangui. "Undoubtedy, there is an epidemic as all those who tested positive had the same pathogen," Talarmin said. Public consumption of unclean water was, he said, the cause of the epidemic. The institute is still testing well waters to determine which need to be purified. Talarmin said the disease had proven resistant to cheap antibiotic drugs such as bactrim and ampicilin, thus necessitating the use of the stronger but more expensive drug Ciprofloxacin. The MSF representative, Ignasi Soler, told IRIN on Wednesday that the NGO had already supplied local health centres with Ciprofloxacin and that treatment had started. He said a MSF team was due to inspect the affected villages on Thursday and deliver more drugs. The north has been receiving drugs from the EC Humanitarian Office through COOPI since June. The COOPI representative in the CAR, Massimiliano Pedretti, said on Wednesday that during the second half of September his agency’s supported health centres in the affected villages had registered 300 of patients complaining of diarrhoea. Several cases of water-borne diseases have been reported nationwide since the state water utility, the Societe de Distribution des Eaux en Centrafrique, suspended supplies in October 2002. However, clean water supplies have been restored in Bozoum and its surrounding areas since October 2003, which could help halt the spread of diarrohoea.