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El Niño wreaks havoc in Horn of Africa
THE LANCET
POLICY AND PEOPLE
El Niño wreaks havoc in Horn of Africa
Irish nvCJD concern
T
medical supplies, and shelter in the form of plastic sheeting to those affected by floods in Wajir district. Malini Morzaria, an MSF official in Wajir town, estimates that about 30 000 people have been moved to higher ground because the town is nearly submerged and wells are contaminated by faecal pollution. Also affected are three camps in the district, holding 120 000 Somali refugees. MSF has now re-located the camps. But malaria, diarrhoea, and other diseases are increasing in the camps and surrounding villages, says Maria Rossi of MSF in Dadaab camp. Similar rescue missions are occurring in Ethiopia where more than 500 people have died and 250 000 been displaced. According to WFP, several trucks in Djibouti have been marooned and tonnes of rice, maize, beans, sugar, and oil lost. In Uganda, 100 people died and 60 000 were displaced by floods and mud-slides as the river Nile burst its banks. Heavy rains have also hit southern Sudan disrupting relief in the war-torn region. Aid workers say that even if the rains subside, the aftermath of the floods will be too much to cope with given the limited supplies.
T
Anderson Wachira Kigotho
Karen Birchard
orrential rain and floods linked with the El Niño weather phenomenon have in 2 months killed more than 2500 people and displaced 1·5 million others in the Horn of Africa. Floods have also destroyed hectares of pasture and farmland, washed away roads, and drowned large numbers of livestock in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In response, the United Nations World Food Programme has established a global task force based in Rome, to disseminate accurate information, to evaluate the impact of El Niño in poor countries, and coordinate resource mobilisation from donor countries. According to Joseph Ng’ang’a, chairman of the department of meteorology at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, this freak El Niño is likely to hit agricultural production in the affected countries. Last week, Ethiopian officials said El Niño may reduce 1997–98 coffeecrop production by 20%. For now, aid agencies are busy distributing food and medical supplies in order to avert further human disaster. Since Dec 10, WFP has been airlifting food to more than 300 000 people in north-eastern Kenya. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing protein-enriched food,
HIV programme for aid workers in Norway id workers are the target of a new HIV-prevention policy in Norway, after it came to light that 66 people employed by NORAD, the state aid agency, were HIV positive. Björn Johannessen, deputy-director of NORAD, said that the programme would act particularly during recruitment and training of new staff. “We are not telling our staff that you shouldn’t have sex because they are adults”, he said. “But we are concerned with increasing awareness of the risk of having sex without protection and the potential consequences.” The programme takes effect immediately. NORAD employs about 300 staff—almost one quarter of them are stationed in the 12 countries which receive Norwegian aid in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Many Norwegians also work for UN agencies abroad.
A
Moussa Awuonda
1830
he Irish Department of Health has finalised arrangements for notification and counselling of 467 people given a radiological dye manufactured from the plasma of a UK blood donor who died subsequently of new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (nvCJD). The product, Amerscan Pulmonate II (Nycomed Amersham, UK) was recalled in mid-November on the advice of the UK Medicines Control Agency. 10 000 vials had already been shipped to 47 countries for use in lung scans. So far, Ireland is the only country to inform patients—because the Minister of Health, Brian Cowen, feels that people have a right to know. Countries such as the UK, Denmark, and Sweden have decided not to tell patients because the risk of transmitting nvCJD is thought to be negligible, and no test or prophylactic treatment is currently available. On Dec 12, the Minister made the decision that the recipients should be told in a prudent and sensitive manner. Experts then began planning how to notify patients without causing panic. Instead, the media broke the story on the evening of Dec 14, causing worry and concern among all those who had had scans in the nine hospitals involved between July and mid-November.
Sir George Alleyne campaigns for top WHO job director-general has been fully ealth is a global concern, says endorsed by the countries of the Sir George Alleyne, director Caribbean. He has extensive experiof the Pan-American Health ence of international Organization and WHO health and has detailed regional director for the knowledge of health Americas. He acknowlproblems in developed edges that the global and developing councommunity has made tries alike. Since much progress in becoming director 3 health, yet “millions years ago, Alleyne have little or no access has reorganised and to the services needed streamlined PAHO. to combat conditions Alleyne sees health as that menace health”. critical to human develCooperation between opment. The biggest countries is the key to a challenge facing WHO, healthy world, he Upwardly mobile? he says, is that of prosays. “Our problems are viding “leadership that can improve frequently common ones. In fact, global health while enhancing human many of the health threats facing peodevelopment”. He says that this ple the world over derive from our challenge can only be met if WHO reinterconnectedness. Meeting those examines and reforms how it works. threats . . . often exceeds the ability of individual countries, acting alone.” Alleyne’s candidacy for WHO Jane Bradbury
H
Vol 350 • December 20/27, 1997
POLICY AND PEOPLE
El Niño wreaks havoc in Horn of Africa
Irish nvCJD concern
T
medical supplies, and shelter in the form of plastic sheeting to those affected by floods in Wajir district. Malini Morzaria, an MSF official in Wajir town, estimates that about 30 000 people have been moved to higher ground because the town is nearly submerged and wells are contaminated by faecal pollution. Also affected are three camps in the district, holding 120 000 Somali refugees. MSF has now re-located the camps. But malaria, diarrhoea, and other diseases are increasing in the camps and surrounding villages, says Maria Rossi of MSF in Dadaab camp. Similar rescue missions are occurring in Ethiopia where more than 500 people have died and 250 000 been displaced. According to WFP, several trucks in Djibouti have been marooned and tonnes of rice, maize, beans, sugar, and oil lost. In Uganda, 100 people died and 60 000 were displaced by floods and mud-slides as the river Nile burst its banks. Heavy rains have also hit southern Sudan disrupting relief in the war-torn region. Aid workers say that even if the rains subside, the aftermath of the floods will be too much to cope with given the limited supplies.
T
Anderson Wachira Kigotho
Karen Birchard
orrential rain and floods linked with the El Niño weather phenomenon have in 2 months killed more than 2500 people and displaced 1·5 million others in the Horn of Africa. Floods have also destroyed hectares of pasture and farmland, washed away roads, and drowned large numbers of livestock in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In response, the United Nations World Food Programme has established a global task force based in Rome, to disseminate accurate information, to evaluate the impact of El Niño in poor countries, and coordinate resource mobilisation from donor countries. According to Joseph Ng’ang’a, chairman of the department of meteorology at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, this freak El Niño is likely to hit agricultural production in the affected countries. Last week, Ethiopian officials said El Niño may reduce 1997–98 coffeecrop production by 20%. For now, aid agencies are busy distributing food and medical supplies in order to avert further human disaster. Since Dec 10, WFP has been airlifting food to more than 300 000 people in north-eastern Kenya. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing protein-enriched food,
HIV programme for aid workers in Norway id workers are the target of a new HIV-prevention policy in Norway, after it came to light that 66 people employed by NORAD, the state aid agency, were HIV positive. Björn Johannessen, deputy-director of NORAD, said that the programme would act particularly during recruitment and training of new staff. “We are not telling our staff that you shouldn’t have sex because they are adults”, he said. “But we are concerned with increasing awareness of the risk of having sex without protection and the potential consequences.” The programme takes effect immediately. NORAD employs about 300 staff—almost one quarter of them are stationed in the 12 countries which receive Norwegian aid in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Many Norwegians also work for UN agencies abroad.
A
Moussa Awuonda
1830
he Irish Department of Health has finalised arrangements for notification and counselling of 467 people given a radiological dye manufactured from the plasma of a UK blood donor who died subsequently of new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (nvCJD). The product, Amerscan Pulmonate II (Nycomed Amersham, UK) was recalled in mid-November on the advice of the UK Medicines Control Agency. 10 000 vials had already been shipped to 47 countries for use in lung scans. So far, Ireland is the only country to inform patients—because the Minister of Health, Brian Cowen, feels that people have a right to know. Countries such as the UK, Denmark, and Sweden have decided not to tell patients because the risk of transmitting nvCJD is thought to be negligible, and no test or prophylactic treatment is currently available. On Dec 12, the Minister made the decision that the recipients should be told in a prudent and sensitive manner. Experts then began planning how to notify patients without causing panic. Instead, the media broke the story on the evening of Dec 14, causing worry and concern among all those who had had scans in the nine hospitals involved between July and mid-November.
Sir George Alleyne campaigns for top WHO job director-general has been fully ealth is a global concern, says endorsed by the countries of the Sir George Alleyne, director Caribbean. He has extensive experiof the Pan-American Health ence of international Organization and WHO health and has detailed regional director for the knowledge of health Americas. He acknowlproblems in developed edges that the global and developing councommunity has made tries alike. Since much progress in becoming director 3 health, yet “millions years ago, Alleyne have little or no access has reorganised and to the services needed streamlined PAHO. to combat conditions Alleyne sees health as that menace health”. critical to human develCooperation between opment. The biggest countries is the key to a challenge facing WHO, healthy world, he Upwardly mobile? he says, is that of prosays. “Our problems are viding “leadership that can improve frequently common ones. In fact, global health while enhancing human many of the health threats facing peodevelopment”. He says that this ple the world over derive from our challenge can only be met if WHO reinterconnectedness. Meeting those examines and reforms how it works. threats . . . often exceeds the ability of individual countries, acting alone.” Alleyne’s candidacy for WHO Jane Bradbury
H
Vol 350 • December 20/27, 1997