Cholera kills 56 in Uganda
06/08/2005 20:31  - (SA)  

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Kampala - The outbreak of an atypical strain of cholera in Uganda has killed at least 56 people and made more than 2 000 others ill since March, said the east African country's health ministry on Friday.

Acting director of the ministry's health services division, Sam Zaramba, said: "We are fighting an unusual cholera strain that has not been commonly observed in Uganda."

He said the ministry had sent alerts to health-care facilities about the strain and was issuing public warnings advising Ugandans that acquired resistance to typical cholera was no guarantee of being safe from the new outbreak.

Zaramba said that since the outbreak began, it had affected 11 districts in Uganda, including a Kampala slum, with 56 confirmed deaths and 2 200 total infections.

International agencies

He said: "Cholera task forces have been instituted at the district level and we are collaborating with a number of international agencies.

"We are concerned because cholera should have ceased to be a problem in Uganda, but personal hygiene has not improved and we are calling on the general public to improve in this area."

Cholera was a waterborne disease, which caused serious diarrhoea and vomiting and could be fatal if not treated within 24 hours.

It could be prevented by washing hands before handling food and avoiding contaminated drinking water.

The Dutch chapter of the medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, warned last month that a lack of water in Uganda had caused an increase in cholera and other cases of waterborne diseases in that region.

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