Rift Valley fever strikes in Mauritania

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever has struck the north Mauritanian town of Aoujeft, causing "loss of human life" and killing cattle, official sources said, while the press put the death toll at 17.

"Cases of Rift Valley fever have caused loss of human life and at the level of cattle," the official Mauritanian news agency AMI reported, without giving casualty figures.

According to the independent local press, the "epidemic" has claimed 17 lives and sick people have been sent to hospitals in Nouakchott.

"The ministers of health and the interior, visiting the region, have given strict instructions to the people of Adrar (where Aoujeft lies) to avoid consuming locally produced meat and milk," AMI added.

These bans on foodstuffs essential to the local population are expected to last until laboratory analyses and tests that have been under way since last Thursday on contaminated animals are complete, the agency said.

Rift Valley fever is a disease transmitted by infected mosquitos that mainly affects livestock but can also contaminate human beings, particularly young men who are looking after diseased cattle.

The death rate is usually below two per cent of infected people, since Rift Valley fever is generally a mild disease among people, causing headaches and muscle pain and flu-like fever, according to the World Health Organisation.

No specific treatment is available and there is no human vaccine for Rift Valley fever, which gets its name from the part of Kenya where it was first identified in 1931.