Cholera hits DRC town

2005-06-03 19:09

Goma - A strike at a water-purification facility in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has caused an outbreak of cholera, killing four people and leaving hundreds more infected, according to a health official.

Dr Guy Mutombo Ndongala, chief epidemiologist of the North Kivu province, said the outbreak in this lakeside town occurred after 55 employees at a government-run purification plant in Goma went on strike because they had not been paid for more than a year.

The strike shut down the plant, forcing many of Goma's 500 000 people to draw drinking water from Lake Kivu, a source of waterborne diseases.

Ndongala said on Thursday the cholera outbreak had killed four people in the past two weeks and infected more than 200.

The water company said it had not paid the workers because it had gone broke after most of its facilities were destroyed in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in January 2002.

Measles

Ndongala also said there had been a measles outbreak around the northeastern town of Beni, located 350km north of Goma.

He said the disease had killed two children and infected another 175 people in several villages surrounding Beni since February.

The last mass immunisation in the area took place in 2004, but missed many children.

Ndongala said local doctors were not reporting the illnesses, which also made it more difficult to control and track its spread.

- AP