Question

South Africa has experienced its worst rainy season in years with a major deluge having occurred about 6 weeks ago and resulting in significant flooding.

A small impoverished town of Fecewee in South Africa.

Population of about 25,000 and close to 1/5th of the population has fallen ill.

500 people are presenting with bloody diarrhea, fever and cramps.

Ampicillin, bactrim and Cipro are being used to shorten the duration of the illness.

Those taking Imodium have worse conditions than those that have not.

Disease lasts about 1 week without treatment and appears to be worse in children under 2 years of age.

A small percentage of the infected are showing additional symptoms that include pain in the joints that develops into chronic arthritis.

symptoms appear to occur 24 to 48 hrs following exposure

300 people, some of whom also have the symptoms I just described, are showing a different set of symptoms that include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, convulsions, numbness, coma and tremors.

Most of these people are over the age of 50. Another 4500 people are experiencing less severe related symptoms that include fever, headache, body aches, nausea and vomiting with a skin rash on the stomach, back and chest.

spraying the area around the town with insecticides. This appears to have cut into the upward trend of the epidemic. We are seeing a decrease in the number of people coming down with the body aches, nausea, tremors, convulsions and related symptoms, but we are still seeing the appearance of folks showing up with the intestinal version of this disease

My townspeople are suffering terribly. We issued a "boil water" order about 5 days ago and we are already seeing a decline in the number of people showing bloody runs

Experts tell us that this outbreak was not caused by cholera and that water may not be the culprit in this epidemic,

but the decline in cases tells me we probably made the right decision in regard to treatment of water

what have the people of Fecewee contracted?

what is the mode of transmission?

why it is showing the progression through the population it has demonstrated?

are we dealing with a zoonosis or an anthroponosis?

what role does socioeconomic status play in this outbreak?

why the age distribution we are seeing?

what authorities should do to stop the epidemic?

what should have been done to prevent this outbreak?

Answer 1

●The people have contracted a water borne disease due to flood.This has lead to symptoms like bloody runs,fever, cramps, other major symptoms are shown system wise like CNS gastrointestinal ,musculoskeletal, diseases.

●The water due to flooding is the main mode of transmission

●It is showing progression through the population because of the existence of the poverty in the area of flood.They had lack of shelter,protection,food after the disaster. This lead to infection among the most vulnerable population children and elderly population and finally it was the adults

●The disease seems to be zoonosis because after spraying the area with insecticides, the rate has come down. It means the microorganisms are killed and the infection rate has significantly dropped.