Cholera kills 23
2004-08-10 14:19
Conakry - An outbreak of cholera in western Guinea has claimed 23 lives since late June from more than 183 cases recorded in the West African country.
Health Minister Amara Cisse was quoted by the state-run daily Horoya as saying that the disease was confirmed by the national laboratory and that health professionals were moving into the area, known as Basse-Guinee, to stem the outbreak.
Worst hit is the Kindia prefecture, about 150km east of the capital Conakry, where roughly half of both the infections and the deaths from the water-borne illness have occurred.
Residents of the area have little access to drinking water, relying on old wells that can be incubators for the disease that afflicts the bowels and can lead swiftly to dehydration without treatment.
Guinea suffered two cholera outbreaks in the last decade, in 1994 and 2000, which claimed about 580 lives.