Something is happening in Senegal that we need to watch very closely. Hundreds of fishermen have developed “a mysterious skin disease” after coming back from sea, and so far nobody can identify what it is. But the fact that so many are catching it is causing some experts to become very alarmed. At first it was reported that about 100 people were infected, then the number was 200, and then there were numerous reports that 500 victims had been identified, and now the latest reports indicate that more than 700 people have been infected. The following comes from an African news source…
The mysterious dermatological disease detected a few days ago among fishermen in Thiaroye-sur-Mer, Senegal, is taking on worrying proportions, with more than 700 people infected as of today.
The Senegalese health authorities are working hard to try to control the mysterious disease. The skin disease appeared in the body of fishermen of Thiaroye-sur-Mer and has spread to other localities, such as Mbour (85 km from Dakar), Saint-Louis (272 km north of Dakar), Mbao (another Dakar suburb), Touba Dialaw (70 km from Dakar), Rufisque (a town 25 km from Dakar) and Yène (60 km from Dakar).
Initially it was hoped that this disease would not prove to be infectious, but the fact that it has now spread to so many different localities is not a good sign.
And according to Reuters, Senegal’s national director of health information and education is calling the sores that the victims have developed “a dermatitis associated with an infectious disease”…
The men, who come from several fishing towns around the capital Dakar, have been placed in quarantine for treatment, according to Ousmane Gueye, national director of health information and education.
“It’s a dermatitis associated with an infectious disease,” Gueye told Reuters. “We are checking further and hope to find out soon what it is.”
In the early days of the COVID pandemic, we didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with, and so we don’t want to jump to any conclusions with this disease either.
Eventually, we could very well get confirmation that this is something serious. On the other hand, it is also possible that this outbreak could fizzle out very rapidly.
We just don’t know.
But those that follow my work on a regular basis already understand why this story immediately got my attention.
In my new book, I discussed a future pandemic in which doctors will be unable to find a cure for a previously unknown disease, and one of the symptoms of the disease will be “sores on the skin”.
Once again, I want to stress that we do not know if this outbreak will develop into that sort of a pandemic. In fact, we do not know if this will develop into any sort of a pandemic at all.
There is so much that we do not know at this point, and so let’s all be very careful not to cause panic.
But there are certain things that we do know.
For example, we know that this disease causes lesions on faces, extremities and genitals…
A report by the ministry said the symptoms suffered by the men included “lesions on their faces, extremities and, for some, on their genitals” as well as headaches and slightly elevated temperatures.
We also know that so far none of the victims of this new disease has also tested positive for COVID-19. So that means that it looks like this outbreak has nothing to do with our current pandemic…
“We have asked the Pasteur Institute, our teams, notably the anti-poison center, to look into the matter in terms of the investigation. We can say today that it is not linked to Covid because the tests came back negative. We have not also seen the presence of viruses, which may make us think of a toxic origin, but we can’t, at this point, say so,” said Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr.
The first case was identified just days ago, and victims are being quarantined. Hopefully that will help to prevent the spread of this outbreak.
Up to this point, I have not been able to find any reports of any deaths from this disease. That could be a good sign, but it is still very, very early and we will have to wait and see what happens.
Since so many fishermen were being affected after being out at sea, initially investigators suspected that algae or some sort of toxic pollution may be responsible.
And without a doubt, there is a tremendous amount of pollution along the coast of that area of Senegal.
For now, officials have banned people from going to sea while the investigation continues…
Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Social Action said measures had been brought in while officials continue to investigate, including a ban on going to sea expected to last for several days.
And we are being told that the Senegalese navy will be gathering water samples to analyze.
I will continue to watch for more updates on this outbreak. Let us hope that it turns out to be nothing to be concerned about.
But health experts are correct when they point out that there have been major pandemics all throughout human history and that it is inevitable that more major pandemics are ahead of us.
COVID-19 has shown us how vulnerable we are despite all of our advanced technology. And the fact that so many nations all over the globe have weaponized diseases makes things even worse.
Just like we witnessed in China, it is way too easy for a deadly bug to escape, and once it does it can spread all over the planet fairly rapidly.
Let’s watch this situation in Senegal over the next couple of weeks. If we get confirmation that it spreads easily from person to person and it starts moving into neighboring countries, then it will be time to sound the alarm.
My hope is that we still have more time before the next major pandemic is upon us. But no matter how much time we may have, it will run out eventually.
At some point a pandemic that is far more severe than the one that we are currently experiencing will arrive, and when that day comes it will shake our world to the core.