Guinea cholera outbreak kills dozens during rains
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Guinea cholera outbreak kills dozens during rains*
14 Aug 2007 11:46:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
CONAKRY, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Cholera has killed dozens of people in
Guinea since seasonal rains arrived a few weeks ago, taking the death
toll to 47 since the start of the year, the health ministry said.
Cholera is spread via water or food contaminated with faeces and becomes
more common in West Africa's rainy season, during the northern
hemisphere's summer.
It often causes severe diarrhoea or vomiting that can result in
dehydration and sometimes death.
"In the last few days there have been several deaths from cholera," Dr
Emmanuel Rolland Malano, head of the health ministry's cholera unit,
told Reuters.
"Of 1,240 cases registered in hospitals and health centres in Guinea
(since Jan. 1) there have been 47 deaths," he said.
The worst-hit locations were the southeastern area around the remote
town of Gueckedou, where 17 people had died, and the coastal capital
Conakry, some 800 km (500 miles) away, where the disease claimed 14 lives.
Most of Guinea's 10 million people scrape by in poverty despite living
on top of one third of the world's known reserves of bauxite, the ore
used to make aluminium.