Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991 TAG: 9103160202
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LIMA, PERU LENGTH: Short
Hospitals are swamped, and health officials now believe an epidemic that will spread over the entire continent is all but inevitable.
Six weeks after the disease is believed to have struck its first victim, in the fishing town of Chimbote, it has spread hundreds of miles in every direction - to villages in the Andes, to the dismal slums that surround Lima and to Iquitos, an Amazon River city upstream from much of Brazil.
The infection has appeared in Ecuador, and health officials in Argentina and Colombia on Thursday were investigating reports of illnesses resembling cholera, a disease that causes severe diarrhea, nausea and cramps and can kill in a few hours.
The Ministry of Health urged Peruvians to avoid uncooked fish and to boil their water. The ministry stopped releasing official estimates of case numbers on March 4, when officials said more than 55,000 cases had been reported by hospitals around the country and more than 250 people had died.
However, an official said Thursday that between 1,000 and 1,500 new cases were appearing every day, which would mean more than 100,000 Peruvians have been ill. - Cox News Service
by CNB