US baby dies of salmonella from pet turtle
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 09:28am (Mla time) 07/06/2007

WASHINGTON -- A three-week-old girl died of salmonella transmitted by a pet turtle, while 22 other people were infected by the small reptiles across the United States since September, health authorities said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed the incidents in a weekly report dated Friday reminding Americans of the health risks associated with small turtles, whose sale was banned in 1975 because they can infect children.

The infant girl was taken to a Florida hospital, where she was in febrile and in septic shock, on February 20. She was given antibiotics but died on March 1, the CDC said in its "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report."

Cultures of cerebrospinal fluid and blood samples taken from the infant found a type of salmonella identical to the one carried by the turtle, it said.

The turtle, which had a 3.2-centimeter (1.25-inch) shell, had been given to the family in January by a friend who bought it at a flea market.

The 1975 law bans the sale of turtles with a carapace fewer than 10 centimeters (four inches) long.

"Small turtles have posed a particular danger to young children because these turtles might not be perceived as health hazards and can be handled like toys," the CDC said.

"Salmonella infections in children can be severe and can result in hospitalization and occasionally in death," it said.

Salmonella can be transmitted to humans by direct or indirect contact with a turtle or its feces, the CDC said.

The CDC said that turtle-linked infections continue to occur because the sales ban is not "fully enforced" and contains exceptions for educational purposes.

Salmonella illness remains a "major public health problem in the United States," the CDC said in the report

An estimated 1.4 million non-typhoidal human Salmonella infections occur each year, causing about 15,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths, it said.

Papua police accused over abuse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6272414.stm
Published: 2007/07/05 10:28:58 GMT
© BBC MMVII

Indonesian police have been accused of killing, raping and torturing civilians with impunity in the province of Papua.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the most serious abuses were being carried out during the hunt for separatists.

Opposition to Indonesian rule in the isolated province has simmered since Jakarta took over from Dutch colonial control in 1963.

Indonesian Police Chief General Sutanto denied any abuses were taking place.

"The police have undertaken many reforms," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "The human rights situation in Papua is getting better."

Iraqi Kurds 'tortured prisoners'
By Jim Muir
BBC News, Baghdad
Published: 2007/07/03 16:05:52 GMT
© BBC MMVII

The US-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, has issued a report detailing torture and abuses in security prisons in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.

It found a consistent pattern of abuse involving detainees being subjected to beatings and stress positions, and allegations of electric shock torture.

The Kurds have been running their own affairs there since the early 1990s.

HRW said the authorities had responded seriously to its concerns, but that it had not yet led to better conditions.

The group pointed out that it was unusual to be able to produce a report on any part of Iraq.

Its request for access to detention facilities run by the Iraqi government and by the US-led coalition have been consistently denied.

But, its researchers were allowed free random access to all security facilities in Iraqi Kurdistan.

They were able to talk to 158 prisoners without anybody else being present.

-End -

Back to top ^