Cote d’Ivoire: 12 Children Passed Away from a Mysterious Respiratory Infection

French Translation of the Week

Over the course of the last two weeks, twelve children passed away from an unidentified respiratory infection in the north of Cote d'Ivoire, health authorities announced last Thursday.

Au cours des deux dernières semaines, douze enfants sont décédés d'une infection respiratoire non identifiée dans le nord de la Côte d'Ivoire, ont annoncé jeudi les autorités sanitaires.

This article has been translated from French. Click here to read the original version on Jeune Afrique.

The young victims, aged 1 to 12 years old, all died between January 29 and February 8, suffering from a cough for several days prior, according to a report from the Ministry of Health which was made public on Thursday.  All of the children came from the small town of Borotogona, where they practice illegal gold panning during the harmattan, a cold, dry wind laden with dust, the ministry said.

Before their deaths, the children had suffered from coughing fits, high fevers, convulsions "resulting in acute respiratory infections and malaria" and "struggles to remain conscious" explains the document from the health authorities, which describes an "unidentified" disease.  Of the 112 children in the town, 55 demonstrated the same symptoms.  They had all been vaccinated, however.

A Pool of Dirty Water

"The situation is under control.  The villagers received care and the people with the last cases of the disease were saved," a medical source from Borotogona indicated, adding that the team of microbiologists would come to perform tests to attempt to identify the virus which caused this disease.

The town of Borotogona, in the north of Cote d'Ivoire, is made of mud huts.  The only water source in the town is comprised of twenty basins and yellow jugs lined up in a dirty pond of water, which is infested with flies.  The children, red with dirt and dust, continue to cough.  After having lost two of her children in three days, Sali Ouattara explained how they had suffered from diarrhea and itchiness "as if I had rubbed pepper all over them.  After my two children, I now fear for myself," she admitted.

Article translated by Allie Stauss, Staff Intern for the Africa Program at the Wilson Center.

Photo courtesy of Enrique Saenz via Wikimedia Commons.