The health situation in the Liberian capital Monrovia remains critical, with 2035 new cases of cholera reported last week alone (week beginning September 1). The cumulative number stands at 6353 cases since the beginning of June. Since the ceasefire and the improvement in security, the number of registered cases of cholera has been rapidly increasing. But as more people return to their homes or to their refugee camps, the cholera outbreak is spreading from central Monrovia to peripheral areas of the city, and neighbouring areas where health care facilities are extremely reduced. The approximately 230 000 people in internally displaced persons camps in Monrovia live in very difficult conditions. But the chlorination of 5000 open wells in the city has begun, and the process will be repeated regularly until the cholera risk has diminished. Measles has also been reported in one camp in the capital city, which currently provides shelter for more than 5000 displaced people.
Singapore has a laboratory confirmed case of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infection. This single case is in a 27-year-old postgraduate medical student who worked in a virology laboratory in Singapore. The patient developed fever, was hospitalised, isolated, and his fever has now resolved. Contact tracing is continuing but it has not identified any secondary cases arising from this infection. One suggestion is that infection may have resulted from a laboratory accident. WHO will be addressing the issue of laboratory safety at its meeting of SARS scientific advisors in October in Geneva.
As of September 5, the number of cases of Salmonella bareilly in the UK has risen to 131, with one fatality in Scotland. S bareilly is very uncommon in the UK. Sarah O'Brien from the UK's Health Protection Agency told TLID that the outbreak strain can be differentiated from those causing sporadic cases. “A contaminated food source distributed nationally is likely to be the cause,” she said. Hypotheses for the origin of the outbreak are being tested at the moment in a national-case control study.
As of September 10, the number of cases of West Nile virus in the USA this year has risen to 2923, with 54 deaths. In Canada there has been a total of 232 probable or confirmed cases of human infection but no fatalities as yet.