After SARS they know they should really provide timely information about what is going on.
That would be the beginning of a human influenza epidemic but we are not there yet.
The first working hypothesis is that the children touched, played with sick chickens and were infected that way. But they are also going to try to see if we are faced with a first case of human-to-human transmission, which would be the start of a flu epidemic.
A WHO team is leaving tomorrow for Reunion, where they'll stay for several days, then to Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles.
They (the dead) were certainly all in contact with the same source of infection, but they (the WHO team) will also try to see whether we are looking at the first cases of human-to-human transmission.
... because there's a lot of movement of people between the islands in the region, there is a risk of it spreading.
An outbreak of cholera, affecting probably several hundreds of people, is occurring,
We fear that if people huddle closely together in temporary shelters and crowded conditions, more measles cases could occur.
The virus is still circulating in this corridor, so it's important to target the children who live on the border between the two countries.
health workers are overwhelmed by injured and routine work is disrupted.
