Cholera kills 110 in Monrovia, spreads to Buchanan

The cholera epidemic in Liberia has killed 110 people in the capital Monrovia over the past four months and ia now gaining ground in the country's second city Buchanan, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO said on Thursday that 10,043 cases of cholera had been reported in Monrovia since rebels began attacking the city in early June and the city of more than one million people was now registering more than 2,000 new cases every week. The rebel assault on Monrovia caused about 300,000 people to flee their homes and take refuge in crowded and insanitary temporary shelters in the city centre, aggravating the already appalling sanitary conditions in the city. WHO said in a statement that 110 people had died from cholera since the beginning of June, despite the setting up of emergency cholera clincs by several relief agencies. The bacterial disease, which is transmitted through infected food and water, causes accute diarrhea and rapid dehydration of the body. Omar Khatib, the WHO chief representative in Liberia, said the cholera epidemic was now gaining ground in the port city of Buchanan, 120 km southeast of Monrovia, which is occupied by rebels of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). "There is an outbreak of cholera now in Buchanan. Two weeks ago we had some 80 cases just from health centres alone. Last week, that jumped to 213 cases with eight deaths. We do not know what is happening in the communities," he told reporters. Khatib said there was always a seasonal epidemic of cholera in Monrovia in September as the rainy season nears its end, but this year's heavy fighting had made the situation worse than usual. "September is always a month in Monrovia when there is a cholera epidemic. We have established several cholera treatment centers in and around Monrovia, including outreach units to cater for more patients. We are also working with health partners to continue to massively chlorinate the water wells," he said. Benoit Leduc, the head of the French medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF)in Liberia Benoit Leduc said that although the overall numbers of new cholera cases being reported by WHO was still very high, it looked as if the disease was being brought under control. He told IRIN on Friday that the numbers being treated in MSF cholera clinics in Monrovia had dropped sharply since fighting in the city ended on August 4 and a peace agreement signed two weeks later enabled relief agencies to broaden the scope of their activities. "During the war in Monrovia, we had over 400 cases per week because of the congestion in the city and the lack of safe drinking water. Now for the past weeks, the cases have been declining to 150-100 cases a week," Leduc said. The heavy rains currently pounding Monrovia are helping to spread the disease by washing contaminated materials and garbage into wells which are the main source of drinking water, relief workers said. WHO is coordinating a campaign to chlorinate the 5,000 main wells in the capital every four days to minimise this source of infection. Khatib said chlorination had now started in Buchanan too. "Chlorination of wells has started this week. On Wednesday WHO donated two water pumps to MERLIN that will be used to clean up and draw water from wells which people suspect to have bodies inside them," he added. At least four wells in Buchanan were found to contain bodies of people killed in the fighting which led to MODEL's capture of the city on 28 July. In other cases bodies were found buried very close to wells. Khatib said WHO had given MERLIN additional health kits to cope with the growing health and sanitation problem in Buchanan, where there are 32,000 displaced people. WHO said it was assessing the situation in several other towns near Monrovia to get more information about the full extent of the epidemic. Health teams had already been sent to check the situation in Tubmanburg and Bopolu, two towns north of the capital which are occupied the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement. Khatib said WHO had a strategic plan to revitalise Liberia's damaged health system by repairing six major referral hospitals around the country next year.