Diseases in Menyama District, Morobe

Update as of Sept 10:
There have been 3995 cases of Flu reported with 59 deaths.
698 cases of Dysentery (20 in Huon district) with 38 deaths. This is from only the 25 villages that have been contacted by radio or health patrol visits. There are many more villages in Menyama District (approximate population of 69,000).
There are a number of health teams visiting now but still communication is hard due to terrain and cloud cover. The road is cut at Aseki with supplies being stockpiled there in anticipation of the road opening.
They say that the dysentery is the Shigella variety which is supposed to be the worst kind (I don't know if there are 'good dysentery' varieties!)

Update Sept 1:
Latest figures put the death toll at over 70 now.
More medicine cannot be flown in due to poor weather conditions and road deterioration.

Article in the National (Aug 24, 2009).
A mystery disease that 'spreads like wildfire' has killed 29 people in five villages in Morobe's Menyama district since last month. (as you can see in my 'general location map' that Menyama is a very remote part of PNG -actually Menyama is slightly to the West of my highlighted region)
Twelve have died in Akwange, fifteen in Ikunda and one in Lagai, all located in Kome LLG (local Level Government area).
They suffered sever headache, high fever, dysentery, sore throat, running nose and sneezing but the Menyama health centre only had medicines for normal flu.
Bina David (health centre manager) said it needed immediate government action.
Last Monday the Morobe health division officer was sent from Lae. He returned on Wednesday and on Friday a batch of drugs was sent to Menyama and then dispatched to the affected villages.
Mrs David said the roads and communication links in the area were poor and appealed for a specialist team to be stationed at Menyama. She feared more people would be affected.
(I have seen a picture of the main menyama road where the height of the 4WD is lower than the heights of the ruts on either side. The car was like it was driving down a small mud canyon.)