At least 29 people have died in an outbreak of cholera in the western Bolobo region of the DRC since the end of May.
|||At least 29 people have been killed in an outbreak of cholera in the western Bolobo region of the Democratic Republic of Congo since the end of May, health authorities said on Wednesday.
The fatalities formed part of a total of 483 cholera cases which have been registered in Bolobo since May 31, said Delly Mangombo, the chief medical officer for the region in Bandundu province.
“Bolobo has an ongoing problem with its drinking water,” Mangombo told AFP.
“The whole population gets its water from the river (Congo) and whenever there is low water of the river, there is always diarrhoea,” he said, adding that it was the fifth major outbreak in the region in 50 years.
A team from the Belgian branch of Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) is currently in the city of Bolobo to help local medical teams cope with the outbreak, Mangombo said.
The World Health Organisation has also sent testing equipment to assess the scale and source of the outbreak.
An outbreak in the northeastern Kinsangani region of the country at the start of the year killed at least 33 people.
Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water. It can strike swiftly, causing intense diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea that leads to severe dehydration. -
Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/cholera-kills-29-in-drc-1.1084963
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