Posting tweet...
The following is the prescibing information on HYDROXOCOBALAMIN, the new FDA-approved antidote for acute cyanide poisoning: http://www.dey.com/Pressroom/Cyanokit_PI.pdf
Email This Post
When a baby fusses and isn’t her usual bubbly self, the parents naturally worry — but botulism is probably the farthest thing from their minds.
So the Caslers of Fort Wadsworth were flabbergasted when 6-month-old Esther Leigh Casler eventually was diagnosed with the potentially fatal illness, which most often is associated with tainted food.
Thankfully, Esther was successfully treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital, West Brighton, and has been home for 12 days now.
The family’s ordeal reads like a medical mystery story.
For starters, botulism, in which the toxin botulin blocks nerve function and leads to respiratory paralysis, is very rare. There are only about 100 cases annually in this country.
In November, Esther wasn’t behaving like her usual bubbly self, and it was beginning to worry her parents, Coast Guard Lt. Eric and Melissa Casler.
“She was not eating well, she was tired, lazy and very fussy,” said Mrs. Casler. “We had gone to Columbia [Presbyterian] Hospital and they told us that she had a swollen colon, but when she came home that night she couldn’t eat, and she choked on her milk — that’s when we knew there was something seriously wrong.”
So the Caslers brought their baby to St. Vincent’s, the hospital where she was born. Doctors diagnosed her with an unspecified infection.
Then, fortunately, “a nurse in the intensive care unit noticed that she was having trouble swallowing her own saliva — easily choking,” said Lt. Casler. “After three days of persistent work, the doctors had diagnosed her [with botulism].”
Dr. Simon S. Rabinowitz, the hospital’s chief of pediatrics, contacted the city Health Department, which in turn reached out to the federal Centers for Disease Control. CDC referred the case to its botulism unit, which recommended the administration of botulism immunoglobin (BIG).
It is more effective than antibiotics. It dramatically cuts the length of illness for most infants — less time is spent on a mechanical ventilator, and less time in the pediatric intensive care unit, which yields an average savings of $88,000 that helps defray the $45,000 cost of the BIG, according to Jen Sammartino, manager of communications at St. Vincent’s.
“It was such a quick process, in reality just a matter of hours — with coordination from the medical director — we got approval from the administration,” she said. “With all that said and done, the BIG was flown overnight to Newark and delivered to us.”
The botulism immunoglobin was received Dec. 2, and within a few days, Esther was off the ventilator. The following day, she was able to take her mother’s breast milk through a tube running from the baby’s nose to her stomach.
“She has made so much progress, even when she was in the hospital,” said Mrs. Casler. “When her brother and sisters came to visit, she was able to recognize them and put up a huge smile.”
The Caslers have three other children, Konrad, 6, Katiana, 4, and Sophia, 3.
“The physical therapist said that she has missed about a month of daily baby development,” said Casler. “She needs to catch up to where she would be if this would’ve never happened. Her pediatrician said that she will be completely back to normal within the year.”
The cause of botulism is unclear about 85 percent of the time. Doctors investigating Esther’s case say she most likely contracted the illness from tainted produce or by ingesting spores released in the course of recent construction near the Caslers’ home.
“At this time of year, especially, it is gratifying to realize that this baby could not have received better care anywhere else,” Dr. Rabinowitz said yesterday. “Not only that, but we allowed the parents to stay close to home, take care of their other three children and receive the bedside pastoral support from their local chaplain. We can all be proud of what St. Vincent’s did for this family. As we celebrate the holidays, we can smile that this family will also be celebrating together, at home.”
Source: Staten Island Advance, 12/27/06
Email This Post
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health in Kenya has reported 32 cases of Rift Valley fever resulting in 19 deaths.
Recommendations for U.S. Travelers
Generally, the risk of Rift Valley fever infection is low for travelers, unless they are in areas where an outbreak is occurring and are bitten by infected insects or come in contact with body fluids and aerosols from infected animals (primarily livestock).
There are no preventive medications or licensed vaccines for Rift Valley fever, but travelers to affected areas can take the following steps to reduce their risk of infection:
More Information
Rift Valley fever is a viral disease generally found in sub-Saharan Africa where sheep and cattle are raised, but the virus has also occurred in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and in Madagascar. Rift Valley fever virus primarily affects livestock and can cause disease in a large number of domestic animals. Although the virus is usually transmitted by infected mosquitoes and possibly other biting insects that have virus contaminated mouthparts, Rift Valley Fever virus is occasionally transmitted to humans through contact with the blood, body fluids, or tissues of the infected animals (e.g., exposure through veterinary or obstetric procedures or direct exposure during slaughter).
For additional information, see Rift Valley Fever (CDC Special Pathogens Branch).
For more information about the current outbreak situation, see the WHO website:
Source: CDC, 12/29/06
Email This Post
At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, wounding more than 20 people, police said.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombs, which went off within about an hour and included one planted under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall which wounded 15 people, two seriously, they said.
“There was a big bang and people started screaming and running. I saw people with blood all over their legs and faces,” said Chalermsak Sanbee, 17, who was standing near the bus stop.
Another went off near a police booth, wounding two people, and a third was placed in a trash can at a market in the port district and wounded five, including a 10-year-old child, police said.
The bomb outside the shopping mall near the Victory Monument in the center of the Thai capital appeared to have caused the largest number of injuries, they said.
Another went off in the parking lot of a shopping mall on the road to Bangkok’s new airport and police closed the center down, but plans for the New Year countdown in the city’s main shopping district were going ahead with increased security.
Militants in the Muslim-majority three southern provinces of Thailand near the Malaysian border have used the tactic of setting of a series of bombs over a short space of time in towns in the region.
They are not known to have launched attacks outside the region so far despite constant fears they would.
More than 1,800 people have been killed in the latest separatist insurgency in the far south, where most people speak a Malay dialect, since it erupted on January 4 2004.
Source: Reuters, 12/31/06
Email This Post
Intro: The following is are certain experts’ thoughtful assessment of where we are with H5N1 in the world at the end of 2006 (Rega).
There remains the risk of emergence of a human pandemic strain through either mutation of the H5N1 virus or incorporation of part of its genome, through recombination, into a human influenza virus.
As well as extending their range geographically the H5N1 viruses have diversified genetically into clades and sub-clades. Clade 1 dominated in 2003-2004, then clade 2 became more important. Clade 2 has subsequently developed into three distinct sub-clades.
The balance between the types of virus continues to change, for reasons that are not clear. For example, since 2005, the Fujian-like virus (clade 2, sub-clade 3) has become the dominant type found in surveillance of market poultry across southern China. Fortunately, despite genetic changes, there has been no evidence of significant change in the viruses’ effects on humans.
The genetic differences and the fact that the virus is continuing to change are, however, important considerations since the clades have different antiviral resistance profiles and continuing genetic change will alter the necessary composition of human H5N1 vaccines referred to as ‘pre-pandemic vaccines’. Two countries have already committed to purchasing these vaccines and others are considering to do so, although it is by no means clear that an H5 based pandemic is inevitable.
There are many important unknown factors relating to the spread of H5N1, including the current distribution of the viruses. The pattern of H5N1 infection in Africa remains elusive because surveillance is especially weak there, apart from Egypt and some parts of Nigeria. The picture is also incomplete in eastern Asia – following two human cases in summer 2006, the situation has improved in Thailand, but the risk remains.
A good picture of the zoonotic situation in China is currently not available and it is also still unclear whether the H5N1 vaccination programmes in China and Vietnam have been successful in eliminating or just reducing the level of infection in poultry, and whether low levels of circulating viruses pose a significant human risk. One negative consequence of any success of vaccination programmes is that surveillance for sporadic human cases is made more difficult, since now, when atypical pneumonias occur, there is rarely the marker of local poultry deaths to inform decisions on whether to test the patient for H5N1 virus.
The relative role of the commercial movement of animals and wild birds in the international spread and local distribution of H5N1 viruses remains controversial. However, it is local preparedness and response that are most crucial in determining the outcome in terms of domestic animal and human health when countries are challenged by the virus. Nationally organised veterinary services, which would enable effective surveillance/early warning and biosecurity systems, are crucial so that authorities can respond promptly when infections are first suspected in either birds or humans. Where biosecurity is poor and veterinary services ineffective, viruses can become endemic and the situation can be complicated by the virus cycling between poultry and wild birds.
One challenge developing countries face is a lack of financial support for the veterinary services and biosecurity measures, even though avian influenza has demonstrated that it is truly an international problem. There has been some progress towards a solution for the financial issues by the involvement of the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations System Influenza Coordinator (http://www.undg.org/content.cfm?id=1482), which have mobilised and released donations that had been pledged by national and international donors.
The data indicate that H5N1 avian viruses remain poorly adapted to humans. With a high enough viral challenge and perhaps some genetic host susceptibility the viruses can infect humans, in which case they are then often lethally pathogenic, although they are still unable to transmit efficiently between humans.
The H5N1 viruses have been around for nearly a decade and it might be tempting to conclude that if they were going to proceed to form or contribute to a pandemic strain, they would have done so by now. However, it should be remembered that it is thought that the avian influenza virus which contributed to the 1918-19 ‘Spanish Influenza’ H1N1 pandemic strain had been around for some years before it became part of a virus that could efficiently transmit between humans and so be a successful pandemic strain.
Apart from the threat from H5N1 there are still many issues around influenza pandemic preparedness (irrespective of the virus type) which need urgent attention. One key area is how authorities in developing countries should best focus their efforts with preparedness, given often very limited resources and many more immediate competing priorities. So far, most discussion, ideas and research have been more suited to settings in better resourced nations. This area needs a multi-sector approach as medical services will not have the most to offer in poorer countries when it comes to preparing for a pandemic. It is hoped that the next world meeting, planned for New Delhi in late 2007 (and intervening technical meetings), will provide opportunities to tackle preparedness in developing nations as well as dealing with avian influenza.
Source: Influenza team (influenza@ecdc.eu.int), European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control, Stockholm, Sweden
Email This Post
In 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses type A/H5N1 (Asian strain) re-emerged and spread rapidly, infecting poultry and some humans in a number of southeast Asian countries, particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.
The mechanism for this spread remains unclear although it is suspected that it was as much related to trade of poultry and poultry products as the movements of wild birds. An exceptional multi-species epizootic at Qinghai Lake in northwest China in May 2005 seemed to demonstrate a role of wild birds in the spread of the viruses beyond Asia. From Qinghai, the virus spread to Central Asia, Europe and some African countries with human cases reported in Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Djibouti and Egypt.
Now, at the end of 2006, the virus has been confirmed in birds in over 50 countries, with birds (almost entirely domestic poultry) being the source of human infections in ten of these.
Some countries are facing up to endemic infection in their national poultry flock and consequent ongoing risks to humans with domestic poultry, while others are barely affected. At a recent world conference on avian influenza and pandemic preparedness, field reports on efforts to control avian influenza were presented by national and international authorities. There is evidence that H5N1 viruses have now become entrenched in backyard poultry in Indonesia, and perhaps also Egypt. Large scale programmes of poultry immunisation have been underway in China and Vietnam where, since 2005 and until an outbreak in the Mekong Delta this week in Vietnam, poultry outbreaks had stopped being reported. The scale of immunization in China, with potentially 14 billion poultry needing to be vaccinated twice annually (in spring and autumn), is the largest immunisation programme against avian influenza ever attempted anywhere in the world.
In the European Union (EU), the virus has not become established in poultry nor have there been there any human infections even though the virus was found in wild birds in at least fifteen countries in the spring of 2006. Some cats and a pine marten that fed on infected birds were also infected. The bird movements to the EU may have been exceptional following an unusually cold spell of weather in Russia and Central Asia in early 2006. After the spring wave, there have only been confirmation of sporadic H5N1 infections in birds in Spain and Germany.
Source: Influenza team (influenza@ecdc.eu.int), European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control, Stockholm, Sweden
Email This Post
As of 29 November 2006, 258 human H5N1 infections that meet its strict laboratory criteria have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) since reporting began for 2003. Of these 258 cases, 154 patients have died (60%) and there has been no decline in that high mortality rate over time.
There has been a disproportionate concentration of infections in children and young adults, even allowing for the relatively young populations in the ten countries where human infections have occurred, and there is an over-representation of females among patients aged 10-29 years. This is thought to be related to the fact that it is usually young people and women who look after domestic poultry.
There is some evidence of familial clustering which may suggest a genetic susceptibility. Asymptomatic and mild infections do occur but appear to be very rare, although more sero-epidemiology around confirmed cases is needed to confirm this impression. In the second half of 2006, there was a steep decline in the number of case reports, although similar declines occurred in 2004 and 2005, but were then followed by resurgences.
Critically, human to human transmission, as indicated by cluster size, is still extremely inefficient, as it was a decade ago when the first human to human transmission took place in Hong Kong.
Source: Influenza team (influenza@ecdc.eu.int), European Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control, Stockholm, Sweden
Email This Post
Dec 29, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – In a recent update on pandemic influenza preparedness planning, the US government reported meeting more than 90% of a long list of objectives it set for itself about 6 months ago.
The report charts progress on a wide range of preparedness measures, from shoring up laboratory capabilities to planning for distribution of critical medical supplies and preparing checklists for various sectors of the economy.
In May, federal officials released the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza: Implementation Plan, a 228-page document describing how the government will cope with an influenza pandemic. The statement was a follow-up to the HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in November 2005.
The status report, released Dec 18, covers 104 tasks that were to be completed within 6 months of release of the implementation plan. The tasks fall into 6 categories: international efforts, transportation and borders, protecting human health, protecting animal health, law enforcement and public safety, and institutions.
Of the 104 tasks addressed, 96 have been completed, and 8 are in progress, the report says. The introduction notes that even though most of the 6-month goals have been met, work on many of the tasks is continuing.
Jeff Levi, PhD, executive director of Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit public health advocacy group, commended federal officials for meeting most of the 6-month benchmarks in the pandemic plan.
“This first phase of the federal pandemic preparedness plan moved at full speed ahead,” he said in a Dec 18 TFAH press release. “It has been an historic government-wide effort, and the release of the results demonstrates a serious commitment to transparency and accountability, allowing Americans to see how well their tax dollars are being spent to improve preparedness for a major health emergency.”
The status report shows that overall progress is being made, even though media reports on pandemic flu have waned, Chris Logan, a senior policy analyst with the National Governors’ Association, told CIDRAP News. The status report is useful for state officials because it raises questions they need to be thinking about. “It’s not just the obvious stuff, it’s the implications of decisions that people need to be aware of and thinking through,” he said. “To the extent these documents help people think through the potential second- and third-order effects, they’re helpful.”
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), publisher of the CIDRAP Web site, said he applauds the Bush administration for issuing a progress report on pandemic preparedness. “But we really have to ask ourselves the hard question ‘What does it mean to be prepared?’, and right now, I don’t think we have a clue,” he said.
It’s difficult to determine if the country is better prepared now than it was 6 months ago, Osterholm told CIDRAP News. He said officials need to start the difficult task of prioritizing preparation measures. “We’ve got to do a better job of understanding the key factors that will get us through a pandemic,” he said. “If there are 10 major factors and 100 little ones, you can get 90 done, but if you don’t get the 10 major ones done, you’re not prepared.”
Osterholm said one problem with the status report is that it reflects a US-centered view of pandemic planning. “What happens to the world will happen to the United States because of the global just-in-time economy,” he said.
A number of the activities discussed in the report are summarized below.
International efforts
The federal government has informed 2 million US citizens living abroad about the latest developments in avian and pandemic flu, mainly through the US government’s main pandemic flu site, and has provided additional information through US consulates and warden networks.
Also, federal officials have developed a policy for contributing to international medication stockpiles and deploying antiviral medications. The government reviewed whether or not US stockpile contributions should require liability limits, but officials found that there’s not an urgent need to propose such arrangements.
The US Agency for International Development (AID) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed a model compensation program for farmers affected by animal influenza outbreaks, which will be launched in early 2007 with partners at the World Bank, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Indonesian government.
Work is continuing on an international strategy to contain pandemic influenza outbreaks, and the US has provided $400,000 to the World Health Organization to host workshops on proper transport of influenza samples to reference laboratories.
The US State Department, along with the Department of Commerce and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drafted a pandemic preparedness checklist for US companies that have overseas operations. Three major business organizations are reviewing the checklist, and once completed, the document will be posted on the government’s pandemic flu Web site.
Transportation and borders
HHS and the departments of Homeland security (DHS), Transportation, and Labor (DOL) developed a pandemic planning checklist for the travel industry and workforce protection guidelines for airline crew members and other people who may come in contact with people and cargo from pandemic-affected areas.
To ensure that all border and transportation stakeholders receive accurate and current information about quarantinable diseases, HHS, USDA, and other departments reviewed the current protocol and added several groups to the notification chain.
Policy recommendations for air, land, and maritime entries and exits, including response plans and screening, were developed by HHS with assistance from 5 other federal departments.
Federal security forces have been briefed by the Department of Justice and DHS about protecting shipments of critical supplies and facilities and are developing contingency plans to carry out the security responsibilities.
Protecting human health
HHS, with the Department of Defense (DOD), the Veterans Administration, and medical specialty societies, developed a guide to help community planners address mass-casualty care with scarce resources. The document was released in November and is posted on the Web site of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
To coordinate and communicate effective messages to the public about pandemic flu, HHS and several other federal agencies and local officials enlisted and trained a wide range of influential community spokespeople who will be available to speak on the pandemic crisis. Risk communication strategies are also planned for local public health, community, and tribal leaders. Several government agencies have also help develop risk communication strategies (”message maps”) on avian flu, pandemic flu, antiviral medications, and vaccines.
One topic of interest to state officials is the possibility of broadening the Food and Drug Administration’s Shelf Life Extension Program to state stockpiles of antiviral medications. The program allows the federal government to keep medications beyond the expiration date under certain conditions. However, federal officials determined that including state stockpiles in the program is not currently feasible.
Logan said that decision is a concern for states. The federal government is providing a 25% subsidy to help states build their own antiviral stockpiles, but the drugs have a listed shelf-life of 5 years and can be used only for pandemic flu, not for seasonal flu, he said. “If a pandemic doesn’t happen before the end of the shelf-life, you have to throw the antivirals out. . . . And then states will have to go out and buy replacement antivirals for their stockpiles. That’s obviously an issue of concern for the states.”
To boost vaccine production in the event of an influenza pandemic, HHS explored current production capacities of US vaccine producers and in June issued a request for proposals to retrofit their facilities to produce pandemic vaccines in an emergency.
Smooth, efficient allocation of medical equipment such as ventilators and gloves is a key part of a pandemic response, and HHS and other government agencies have developed and tested a plan to distribute critical materials. The plan was tested in October, and will undergo further trials through March 2007.
To speed the genetic sequencing of viral isolates during a pandemic, HHS set a goal of releasing the findings to GenBank within 1 week of diagnosis confirmation at the Institute for Genomic Research. Complete viral genome sequences can now be obtained from a clinical sample in 3 days, and HHS, with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, can publish sequence data on a human H5N1 isolate within 1 week.
There were other accomplishments on the laboratory front. HHS improved access to standardized influenza reagents for use in tests and research; it can now distribute the reagents within 3 business days of a request. HHS, along with other government agencies and partners, has supplied all members of the US Laboratory Response Network with reagents and protocols to conduct tests using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). These labs are prepared to use RT-PCR to identify and confirm pandemic flu strains within 24 hours.
HHS, using DOD threat-reduction modeling tools and software from other agencies, has developed a real-time epidemic analysis and modeling system for public health use and emergency preparedness.
The National Disaster Medical System has developed a strategy for deploying medical assets, such as materials and mobile medical units, held by DHS and HHS. Several federal agencies also developed a “Pandemic Influenza Playbook” that describes what public health and medical capabilities the federal government has available to support state responses to pandemic influenza.
Protecting animal health
Federal agencies, with the assistance of states, launched a wild-bird testing program for H5N1 avian flu in August along with an electronic reporting system, and is working on a response strategy if such an outbreak occurs.
In assessing the abilities and needs of federal animal research facilities, the USDA and DHS identified problems at a key animal influenza research facility. The departments completed a study of the facility’s deficiencies, along with plans to address its needs.
Because of the risk of an avian flu outbreak in birds, several government agencies have prepared three messages based on three scenarios that can be used to deliver clear, coordinated information to the public. Federal departments, with the assistance of industry groups, have also developed food safety messages that can be customized and distributed if an avian influenza outbreak occurs.
Law enforcement and public safety
The Department of Justice, along with HHS, DHS, DOL, sponsored a forum in May for criminal justice officials on best practices to meet the challenges they may face in a pandemic outbreak. Information from the forum is available on the Web site of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. In addition, a consortium of criminal experts was convened in conjunction with the forum to guide ongoing criminal justice planning efforts.
To address emergency response issues, DHS and several other government agencies will host a forum in February for selected federal, state, local, and tribal officials. The group will review interim guidance and adopt a national pandemic flu planning model.
Checklists for law enforcement personnel and emergency responders on issues such as prepandemic vaccination have been developed by HHS and DOL. The documents, which were reviewed by police unions and other professional organizations, also include planning checklists for correctional facilities.
Institutions
Government officials have developed preparedness exercises with private-sector partners, and templates of the exercises are available for use by other interested groups. Business continuity guidance was developed and published on the government’s pandemic flu Web site.
Interim guidance on environmental management and cleaning practices, including the handling of potentially contaminated waste materials, has been developed. The guidelines are intended for healthcare facilities, homes, schools, and businesses.
Unfinished tasks
Eight of the tasks were not completed by the 6-month deadline, and the report notes that work on each is continuing. They include measures to:
See also:
Summary of progress, National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza: Implementation Plan
http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/federal/stratergyimplementationplan.html
National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza: Implementation Plan
http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/nspi_implementation.pdf
HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan
http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/plan/
Dec 18 TFAH press release
http://healthyamericans.org/newsroom/releases/release121806.pdf
Nov 2006 AHRQ report “Providing mass medical care with scarce resources: a community planning guide”
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mce/mceguide.pdf
Proceedings of the Bureau of Justice Assistance criminal justice forum on pandemic issues
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/pandemic/pandemic_main.html
Email This Post
Rescue workers searched Sunday for two people missing in the rubble of a car bomb blast that was blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA and shattered a nine-month-old cease-fire the group had described as permanent, officials said.
Crews were using heavy machinery to remove tons of concrete and metal at the five-story parking lot at Madrid’s international airport that was largely destroyed in Saturday’s explosion, said Javier Ayuso, a spokesman for the city council’s emergency rescue services.
Two Ecuadorean men believed to have been sleeping inside two separate parked cars were missing in the rubble, officials said. The explosion also left 26 people injured, most with damage to their ears from the shock wave.
Ayuso said it could take days to reach the spot where the van blew up.
The blast prompted the government to halt plans for negotiations with ETA after a cease-fire that had been seen as heralding the best chance in nearly a decade to end the nearly 40-year-old conflict in Spain’s northern Basque region.
ETA did not claim responsibility for the bombing, but a man who placed a warning call before the attack said he was a representative of the group. Following previous attacks, the group has sometimes waited weeks to claim responsibility.
ETA and its political supporters have been warning for months that the peace process was faltering. They have complained that the government has made no gesture to reciprocate its call for a cease-fire, such as meeting a long-standing ETA demand for its prisoners to be moved to the Basque region of northwestern Spain from other parts of the country.
The group also has said that continued arrests of suspected members and court rulings against the movement have broken a government promise to relieve pressure on the pro-independence group. It is also angry that the government has refused to allow talks among Basque political parties on the region’s future until ETA’s outlawed political wing Batasuna renounces violence.
The head of ETA’s political wing, Arnaldo Otegi, said Saturday after the attack that he did not consider the peace process dead.
“Not only is it not broken, but it more necessary than ever,” he said.
“What happened in Madrid, if it’s confirmed ETA is behind it, doesn’t take us back to the scenario that existed before March 24,” he added, referring to the day ETA declared its cease-fire.
Source: AP, 12/31/06
Email This Post
By Irwan Firdaus – The Associated Press
SEMARANG, Indonesia – Navy ships searched into the night today for survivors from a crowded Indonesian ferry that sunk off Java island during a violent storm, leaving the vast majority of the nearly 640 passengers still missing.
Nearly 24 hours after the disaster, just 59 survivors had been found, most drifting in lifeboats or clinging to driftwood, officials said. No bodies had been recovered.
Witnesses reported seeing lifeboats carrying more survivors, the transport minister said, and one person on board the ferry said most people had time to put on life jackets. Other survivors reported panicked passengers fighting over life jackets as the Senopati capsized close to midnight Friday after being pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours.
“The crew kept saying ‘relax, relax,’ but it was clear the ship was not stable,” Irfan Setiawan told Metro TV station. “It suddenly veered to one side and the TV and fridges fell over.”
Setiawan said he was hit by a piece of debris and sank with the ship, but fought his way to the surface and managed to climb onto a lifeboat along with about 30 other people.
Others clung on to pieces of wood or managed to swim to nearby islands in tropical waters between 72 and 84 degrees Fahrenheit.
Another survivor, Budi Susilo, said he saw three people drown after losing their grip on an upturned raft.
“We told them to hold on, but they ran out of energy,” he told reporters after arriving at port on Java island late today.
Four naval ships, several other vessels and at least two aircraft were combing the area Saturday, but poor visibility and heavy seas hindered their search. Two naval vessels were continuing the search through the night.
Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said late Saturday after talks with rescue officials that 638 passengers and crew were on board the 16-year-old Japanese-built vessel, which had a capacity to hold 850 passengers.
Radjasa said the vessel was in good condition when it set sail and that bad weather was the likely cause of the accident.
The ferry was on the final leg of a 48-hour journey from the island of Borneo to the main island of Java when waves of up to 16 feet crashed over its deck, said Slamet Bustam, an official at Semarang port, the ferry’s destination, where hundreds of distraught relatives and friends waited for news about their loved ones.
“We’re afraid many have died,” Bustam said. The ferry ran into trouble off Mandalika island, some 190 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta. In a final radio contact, the captain informed port authorities that the ship was severely damaged and capsizing, said local navy commander Col. Yan Simamora.
“We all just prayed as the waves got higher,” said another passenger, Cholid, who survived by clinging to wooden planks.
“I was going upstairs to try to help my daughter, but the ship suddenly broke up and I was thrown out. I lost her,” said Cholid, who gave only a single name.
Worried family members gathered at the main office of ferry operator PT Prima Fista, weeping and demanding details about the fate of their loved ones.
“I am waiting for my mother, auntie, sister and nephew who were on their way to celebrate New Year’s Eve at my house,” said Yulis, 25.
Seasonal storms have wreaked havoc across Indonesia in recent days, unleashing flash floods and landslides that have killed more than 145 people and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes on Sumatra.
Earlier Friday, a different vessel carrying around 100 people capsized in bad weather off the coast of northwestern Sumatra, killing three and leaving 26 missing presumed dead, Radjasa said.
Ships in Indonesia often carry far more passengers than recorded, making it hard for authorities to say with accuracy how many people are on board. Earlier, officials and media reports put the number on board at more than 800.
Ferries are a main source of transportation in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands with a population of 220 million. Overcrowding and poorly enforced safety standards mean accidents are common.
In 2000, almost 500 people died when a ferry carrying Christians fleeing religious violence in the eastern Maluku islands capsized. A year later, 350 were killed when a boat carrying asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan sank after setting sail from Java to Australia. Associated Press Writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report from Jakarta.
Email This Post
care to comment ? »