- GENEVA (Reuters) - The death
toll in Madagascar's flu epidemic has surged in the past two weeks to 671,
with reported cases nearly doubling to 22,646, the World Health Organization
said on Tuesday.
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- The Geneva-based agency said the outbreak was affecting
five out of the Indian Ocean island state's six provinces, with the worst
hit area being Fianarantsao in the south.
-
- The WHO said on August 13 that 444 had died and a further
13,300 cases had been reported since the illness appeared in July.
-
- But a WHO spokeswoman said that some of the sharp rise
in recent days could simply reflect better monitoring of the situation
by health officials.
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- "The explanation ... could be improved surveillance
between the ministry and the WHO," spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters.
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- A WHO team of experts is in Madagascar advising the Health
Ministry on measures needed to contain the epidemic.
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- Samples taken from victims of the illness have shown
it to be Type A influenza. The infectious illness causes severe headaches,
followed by neck and chest pains.
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- Madagascar has only just emerged from six months of political
crisis, which devastated the already shaking economy of the island of 16
million people off southeast Africa.
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