MSF flies supplies to curb cholera outbreak

A charter plane carrying medical equipment and staff was expected in Mali on Tuesday to help curb a cholera epidemic that has so far killed 55 people along the River Niger, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said. MSF said the disease had so far killed 55 people out of 693 confirmed cases among nomadic fishermen living the river. The epidemic, which was detected over the past three weeks in the southern towns of Macina and Koulikoro, was reportedly spreading from the southern part of the country to the north, MSF said in a press release on Tuesday. A combined team of MSF and local health authorities that went to assess the situation found more cases, it said. "So far we have counted a total of 693 cholera patients of whom 55 people died," Luc Derlet, Operations Coordinator for MSF from Luxemburg said. "The seven cases that have been detected in Mopti, a bigger town to the north, are particularly worrying as they put a large population at risk," he warned. "We are focusing on immediate isolation and treatment in a bid to stop the epidemic from spreading even further. A prevention programme is the next logical step," he added. Derlet estimated that half a million people were at risk. The local population are mainly nomadic fishermen who rely on the river water for drinking, cooking and washing. As a result, cholera was spreading rapidly. "We will open two or three cholera treatment centres (CTC) along the Niger river, at places with the highest concentration of cholera cases, where the patients can be treated in isolation," Derlet said. Another 15 smaller structures would be opened along the river to improve access to the more remote areas. "For this, our teams will mainly go by boat. We will probably have eight international and around 20 national staff mobilised for this cholera emergency intervention," Derlet said. MSF has sent the first cholera treatment kits from Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire. The consignment being flown in from Ostend, Belgium, was of 30 MT of medical and logistical equipment that will be used to operationailise treatment canters by mid-next week.