Canadians Take Mobile Lab to Help Fight Kenyan Disease Outbreak
Posted on: Monday, 8 January 2007, 21:00 CST
(CP) - A group of Canadian health experts are taking a specialized mobile lab to Kenya on Tuesday to help fight an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever, a virus that can devastate livestock herds and infect humans as well.
"This has the potential of (being) a huge epidemic," said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, head of the special pathogens program at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Feldmann is one of five Canadians - three from Winnipeg and two from Ottawa - who have been asked by the World Health Organization to help fight the epidemic.
The Ministry of Health in Kenya has reported 32 cases of Rift Valley Fever in humans resulting in 19 deaths. The outbreak is occurring in remote parts of northeastern Kenya, primarily in flood-affected areas of Garissa province.
The disease primarily affects livestock. Humans can catch the disease from infected domestic animals and from mosquitoes.
Most humans show few or mild symptoms, although the disease can cause fever, brain inflammation or eye damage. It has a fatality rate in humans of about one per cent.
There is no known treatment for the disease.
The Canadian relief effort will centre around the use of a mobile diagnostic laboratory.
The lab can be packed up into small boxes and flown into places where roads don't reach, said Feldmann.
"We can run it off a car battery," he said.
Since it can be difficult to tell the symptoms of Rift Valley Fever apart from other diseases such as malaria, the Canadian contribution will help health workers focus their efforts by providing quick, accurate diagnoses.
In addition to humanitarian reasons, Feldmann said health officials are concerned about the outbreak because of the chance it could spread via Kenya's active tourist industry. As well, recent flooding has raised the possibility that vast numbers of eggs from infected mosquitoes are about to hatch, spreading the disease.
Feldman expects his team to be in Kenya for at least three weeks.
He said the typical cost for a three-person team for a three-week posting is about $30,000.
Source: Canadian Press
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