Cholera in Haiti - news.nationalpost image

An epidemic cholera strain has been confirmed in Haiti, causing the first cholera outbreak in Haiti in many years. Cholera is a potentially fatal bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration.

The disease is most often spread through the ingestion of contaminated food or drinking water. Water may be contaminated by the feces of an infected person or by untreated sewage. Food is often contaminated by water containing cholera bacteria or because it was handled by a person ill with cholera.

The majority of cases have been reported in the Artibonite Departmente, approximately 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Affected hospitals are being strained by the large number of people who are ill.

This outbreak is of particular concern given the current conditions in Haiti, including poor water and sanitation, a strained public health infrastructure, and large numbers of people displaced by the January earthquake and more recent flooding.

The World Health Organization, along with a number of international agencies, is mobilizing to assist local and national response efforts.

Advice for Travelers

At this time, CDC and the U.S. Department of State maintain travel warnings for Haiti. These warnings recommend that U.S. citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Haiti. For more information, see Travel Health Warning: Major Earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on the CDC website.

Most travelers are not at high risk for getting cholera, but people who are traveling to Haiti should still take their own supplies to help prevent the disease and to treat it. Items to pack include

• A prescription antibiotic to take in case of travelers’ diarrhea
• Water purification tablets*
• Oral rehydration salts*

*In the United States, these products can be purchased at stores that sell equipment for camping or other outdoor activities.

Although no cholera vaccine is available in the United States, travelers can prevent cholera by following these 5 basic steps:

1) Drink and use safe water*

• Bottled water with unbroken seals and canned/bottled carbonated beverages are safe to drink and use.
• Use safe water to brush your teeth, wash and prepare food, and make ice.
• Clean food preparation areas and kitchenware with soap and safe water and let dry completely before reuse.

*Piped water sources, drinks sold in cups or bags, or ice may not be safe. All drinking water and water used to make ice should be boiled or treated with chlorine.

To be sure water is safe to drink and use:

• Boil it or treat it with water purification tablets, a chlorine product or household bleach.
• Bring your water to a complete boil for at least 1 minute.
• To treat your water, use water purification tablets, if you brought some with you from the United States, or one of the locally available treatment products, and follow the instructions.
• If a chlorine treatment product is not available, you can treat your water with household bleach. Add 8 drops of household bleach for every 1 gallon of water (or 2 drops of household bleach for every 1 liter of water) and wait 30 minutes before drinking
• Always store your treated water in a clean, covered container.

2) Wash your hands often with soap and safe water*

• Before you eat or prepare food
• Before feeding your children
• After using the latrine or toilet
• After cleaning your child’s bottom
• After taking care of someone ill with diarrhea

* If no soap is available, scrub hands often with ash or sand and rinse with safe water.

3) Use latrines or bury your feces (poop); do not defecate in any body of water

• Use latrines or other sanitation systems, like chemical toilets, to dispose of feces.
• Wash hands with soap and safe water after using toilets or latrines.
• Clean latrines and surfaces contaminated with feces using a solution of 1 part household bleach to 9 parts water.

What if I don’t have a latrine or chemical toilet?

• Defecate at least 30 meters away from any body of water and then bury your feces.
• Dispose of plastic bags containing feces in latrines, at collection points if available, or bury it in the ground. Do not put plastic bags in chemical toilets.
• Dig new latrines or temporary pit toilets at least a half-meter deep and at least 30 meters away from any body of water.

4) Cook food well (especially seafood), keep it covered, eat it hot, and peel fruits and vegetables*

• Boil it, cook it, peel it, or leave it
• Be sure to cook shellfish (like crabs and crayfish) until they are very hot all the way through.
• Do not bring perishable seafood back to the United States.

* Avoid raw foods other than fruits and vegetables you have peeled yourself.

5) Clean up safely—in the kitchen and in places where the family bathes and washes clothes

• Wash yourself, your children, diapers, and clothes at least 30 meters away from drinking water sources.

Before departing for Haiti, talk to your doctor about getting a prescription for an antibiotic to treat travelers’ diarrhea. If you are traveling in Haiti and have severe watery diarrhea, seek medical care right away. Remember to drink fluids and use oral rehydration salts (ORS) to prevent dehydration.

Medical care facilities are strained with the high number of people who are ill. If you will be traveling to Haiti, CDC recommends that you purchase medical evacuation insurance in the event that you become ill while in Haiti. (See the U.S. Department of State list of U.S.-Based Air Ambulance or Medical Evacuation Companies.) If you are in Haiti and need medical care and you do not have access to medical evacuation, you can contact the Embassy of the United States in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, (American Citizens Services Unit office hours are 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Consular Section is closed on U.S. and local holidays.):

Boulevard du 15 October, Tabarre 41, Tabarre, Haiti
Telephone: (509) (2) 229-8000
Facsimile: (509) (2) 229-8027
Email: acspap@state.gov

Advice about Cholera for Travelers Arriving in the U.S. from Haiti

Five Basic Cholera Prevention Messages

Info for Healthcare Professionals

Acute Watery Diarrhea & Cholera: Pre-decision Brief

Cholera Outbreak in Haiti

General Cholera Info

Haiti Earthquake and Travel

Technorati Tags: Cholera, Haiti, travel

Food Poison - Whywhoo.com image

Food poisoning!

Food borne illness or food poisoning is caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. Such contamination usually arises from improper handling, preparation or storage of food. Food borne illness can also be caused by adding pesticides or medicines to food, or consuming or by accidentally consuming naturally poisonous substances like poisonous mushrooms or reef fish. Contact between food and pests, especially flies, rodents and cockroaches, is a further cause of contamination of food.

Some common diseases are occasionally food borne mainly through the water vector, even though they are usually transmitted by other routes. These include infections caused by Shigella, Hepatitis A, and the parasites Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum.

World Health Organization definition

Food borne illnesses are defined by the World Health Organization as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. Every person is at risk of food borne illness

Symptoms and mortality

Symptoms typically begin several hours after ingestion and depending on the agent involved, can include one or more of the following: nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headache or tiredness. In most cases the body is able to permanently recover after a short period of acute discomfort and illness. However, food borne illness can result in permanent health problems or even death, especially in babies, pregnant women (and their fetuses), elderly people, sick people and others with weak immune systems. Similarly, people with liver disease are especially susceptible to infections from Vibrio vulnificus, which can be found in oysters.

Incubation period

The delay between consumption of a contaminated food and appearance of the first symptoms of illness is called the incubation period. This ranges from hours to days (and rarely years), depending on the agent, and on how much was consumed.

During the incubation period, microbes pass through the stomach into the intestine, attach to the cells lining the intestinal walls, and begin to multiply there. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, and some can directly invade the deeper body tissues. The symptoms produced depend on the type of microbe.

Click here for more information on food poisoning and what to do if you get it.

Technorati Tags: food poisoning, oysters, shigella, travel