Cholera kills 43 in east Africa
2008-02-29 18:31
Isiolo - Cholera has killed 43 people in the last two weeks along the remote border between Kenya and Somalia, officials in both nations said on Friday.
Abubakar Abdi, a public health official in Kenya's Mandera District, said 30 people, including at least six children, had died there from the water-borne disease in a fortnight.
Meat exports to Somalia and Ethiopia were banned, he said.
On the Somali side of the border, a staff member with the Irish charity Trocaire said 13 people had died from 676 suspected cases, 257 of which had needed hospital treatment.
"We responded when we received the first case, mobilised all organisations working in the area, and so far we have managed to control the situation," Simon Oboso told Reuters by telephone.