Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
Chad is Launching Emergency Yellow Fever Campaign
Yellow fever is a deadly mosquito borne disease that is easily spread. An outbreak would be very, very dangerous. “The Ministry of Health of Chad is launching an emergency mass-vaccination campaign against yellow fever from 22 February 2013, following laboratory confirmation of two cases in the country in December 2012. The two cases from Goz Beida and Guereda districts, were laboratory confirmation by a WHO regional reference laboratory for yellow fever, Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal. They were identified through the national surveillance programme for yellow fever, following intensive surveillance which was triggered in response to the outbreak of yellow fever in neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur region. The intensive surveillance in Chad also reported 139 suspected cases and 9 deaths.” (WHO http://bit.ly/VXxLxO)
Bienvenue to the Counter-Insurgency
Two suicide bombings last week have spurred the French to commence with a counterinsurgency campaign. “The house-to-house searches, sandbagging of fixed defensive positions and reliance on tip-offs from locals already have the hallmarks of an arduous counter-guerrilla operation. The need to secure Gao, hundreds of kilometers behind the French forward lines where commandos are hunting for French hostages believed to be held in rebel mountain hideouts, is robbing momentum from France’s five-week-old campaign…the recent Gao attacks, French spokesmen are increasingly having to fend off suggestions that the 4,000 French soldiers in Mali could risk getting mired in a long and debilitating war, in a tough and hostile battleground.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/VXx1Zv)