23/6/2006
Toll Mounts in Angolan Cholera Outbreak. UN Sends More Health Kits

With the toll in Angola’s worst cholera outbreak in almost two decades approaching 50,000 cases and 2,000 deaths, the United Nations health agency is sending drugs, oral rehydration salts, disinfectants and chlorine to counter poor sanitation and a shortage of safe drinking water, major vectors of the disease.

“Although current trends show a decline in most provinces, a daily incidence of around 125 cases is still being reported,” the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest update.

A plan of action has been drawn up and agreed upon by all partners at the country level, for short, medium and long-term response to the outbreak, while the WHO continues to support the Angolan Health Ministry in its surveillance, water and sanitation, social mobilization and logistics activities.

As of 19 June, Angola had reported a total of 46,758 cases including 1,893 deaths.

Cholera, an acute intestinal disease caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, causes copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment, including rehydration, is not given promptly.

About 35 per cent of victims are children under five. Even at the best of times, Angola faces one of the highest under-five mortality rates in the world as the southern African country struggles to rebound from a devastating civil war that ended in 2002 after destroying much of its
infrastructure over the previous 27 years.