Mystery disease blinds Amazon children in Brazil
Reuters AlertNet, UK
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Sao Paulo, Brazil:
Researchers are scrambling to discover what is blinding children in the Amazon city of Araguatins in the remote northern Brazilian state of Tocantins, health officials said on Wednesday.
Three of the 365 children identified by the Disease Control Agency of Tocantins with similar lesions on their eyes are totally blind. Two others were blinded in one eye and have undergone surgery.The agency reported the first 17 cases in November, 2005.
Since then, state and federal health officials, epidemiologists from the University of Sao Paulo and the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and specialists from Rio Grande do Sul and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta have been compiling data to identify the cause of the disease.Health officials have issued advisories banning swimming or bathing in the river around the city.
feb 15, 2006
Reuters AlertNet, UK
_______________
Sao Paulo, Brazil:
Researchers are scrambling to discover what is blinding children in the Amazon city of Araguatins in the remote northern Brazilian state of Tocantins, health officials said on Wednesday.
Three of the 365 children identified by the Disease Control Agency of Tocantins with similar lesions on their eyes are totally blind. Two others were blinded in one eye and have undergone surgery.The agency reported the first 17 cases in November, 2005.
Since then, state and federal health officials, epidemiologists from the University of Sao Paulo and the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and specialists from Rio Grande do Sul and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta have been compiling data to identify the cause of the disease.Health officials have issued advisories banning swimming or bathing in the river around the city.
feb 15, 2006
