Humanitarian groups battle cholera outbreak

Humanitarian organisations in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have stepped up their efforts to contain a cholera epidemic in the region that continues to strike more people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that as at 15 July, the Burundian Ministry of Health had reported 217 cases, including two deaths, since the outbreak here on 17 June. Most of the victims were in Bujumbura Rurale Province, "particularly affecting Rushubi, Nyambuye, Gihosha, and Gikungu", WHO reported on Friday. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the number of reported cases had risen from six to 20 daily. "Confirmed cholera cases have also been reported in several [other] provinces," it added. WHO said the health ministry had established a technical committee to contain the outbreak, which had been caused by inadequate safe drinking water and the pollution of local water sources. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the ministry, and NGOs were coordinating the response. In this respect, Medecins Sans Frontieres had established a treatment centre in Gihosa, water purification tables had been distributed, and a plan for the long-term decontamination of the Nyakabugu river had been prepared, WHO said. ICRC has set up a mobile team to disinfect the northern districts of the capital, Bujumbura, where the sick are living. It had - in one week - disinfected 1,500 homes, ICRC said. In cooperation with MSF-Belgium, it added, the ICRC had installed two water tanks, each with a capacity of 125 cubic metres, in the affected part of Bujumbura. An ICRC vehicle was regularly filling the tanks, thereby ensuring that 10,000 people were being served. Two-thirds of these were people displaced from the surrounding countryside, it added. In neighbouring DRC, ICRC said, 100 people had so far contracted the disease in the southeastern city of Kalemie, Katanga Province. ICRC said it had given money and material support to the local Red Cross, which had set up 22 points - manned by at least 60 volunteers - where people could bring their water to be disinfected. The outbreak had started when the city's water supply system failed, forcing its estimated 120,000 residents to collect water from nearby Lake Tanganyika and local rivers, ICRC reported.