Congo cholera outbreak kills 19
2005-08-27 16:41
Kinshasa - A cholera outbreak among soldiers and their families in eastern Congo has killed more than a dozen people and sickened hundreds of others, health officials said on Saturday.
The disease sweeping the military encampment in North Kivu province has left 753 people hospitalised and 19 dead, said Kampo Abu-Bakr of the World Health Organisation, although there have been no reported fatalities since Friday.
The outbreak has been contained within the affected army unit and their families and has not spread into surrounding communities, he said.
The soldiers and their kin likely drank infected water from Lake Kivu despite a recent warning from a local governor that the lake was contaminated, said Jacqueline Chenard, a UN spokesperson in the eastern city of Goma.
The cholera spread widely among the unit as it moved bases, with soldiers and family members packed together closely in their vehicles, other officials said.
The soldiers were ex-militia fighters recently integrated into Congo's army - a main thrust of a peace process meant to reunite the country after its 1998-2002 war.
Cholera, often transmitted by dirty drinking water, is a major killer in developing countries.
The bacterium attacks the intestine and causes life-threatening diarrhoea and dehydration, but can be easily treated if patients are rehydrated quickly.
- AP