Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Dysentry outbreak kills two children in PNG highlands

Posted at 00:53 on 23 October, 2009 UTC

Two children are dead while 130 others have been treated for dysentery in the Papua New Guinea Western Highlands.

The Post Courier reports half of those affected were school children, forcing provincial authorities to close three elementary schools and a primary school since the outbreak was reported in Zumol village.

The paper says Zumol residents are now being discriminated against by surrounding villages, who claim they were the cause of a possible cholera outbreak.

Health authorities say though the outbreak was not cholera, dysentery, food poisoning and typhoid are related to the deadly disease which PNG experienced for the first time two months ago in Morobe province.