Cameroon: Scores die of cholera

In Africa, Diseases & Mutations, News Headlines

(CNN) — More than 100 people have died of cholera in Cameroon, according to Joseph Beti Assomo, a regional governor.

The deaths occurred in the High North region of northern Cameroon, and the fatalities come since a cholera outbreak warning in June.

More than 600 people have been stricken with the water-borne disease, the governor said, but a local non-governmental organization, Cameroon Health, said more than twice that number — 1,500 people — are sick.

According to a Cameroon Ministry of Water and Energy official, 70 percent of those living in the High North do not have access to potable water.

There has been flooding in the region recently, and officials think it might have aggravated the spread of the disease. It’s the border region of Nigeria and Chad, and is close to the the Chadian capital of N’Djamena.

The disease is caused by contaminated water, and many people with cholera suffer acute watery diarrhea, which leads to severe dehydration.
If left untreated, it can kill quickly, possibly within hours, the World Health Organization says.

Journalist Moki Kindzeka in Yaounde, Cameroon, and CNN’s Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.

You may also read!

Millions In China Face Arsenic Poisoning

Nearly 20 million people in China live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies,

Read More...

Biblical Wormwood Arrives In India

Tubewells in seven wards of Chittagong City Corporation are pumping water with arsenic contamination 10 times higher than the

Read More...

34 Meter Tsunami Could Hit Japan

TOKYO (AP)—Much of Japan's Pacific coast could be inundated by a tsunami more than 34 meters (112 feet) high

Read More...

Mobile Sliding Menu