JOHANNESBURG, 15 July 2008 (IRIN) - "A large part of population is potentially at risk ... the disease is still not under control," Marco Falcone, emergency coordinator of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), told IRIN.
By the end of June, Madagascar's Ministry of Health (MoH) had reported 520 suspected cases of RVF in humans in more than 20 of Madagascar's 119 districts, primarily in the north, south and central highlands.
Falcone said the official figures were "probably largely underestimated"; MoH investigators had found case numbers in rural areas largely underreported, and the real incidence of human infection should be considered much higher.
"There is a lack of knowledge of the disease and difficulty of communication, which make it hard to collect information from all the regions ... that's why many cases are not reported or identified as RVF," he added.
The latest situation report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted: "During recent investigations, experts did not exclude a possibility of hundreds of cases."
RVF, a viral disease, can cause severe illness and death in both animals and humans, and is usually well established in animal populations by the time the first human cases are reported.
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