Cholera breaks out in Dakar for first time in eight years

Cholera has broken out in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, for the first time in eight years, government doctors said on Tuesday. Doctor Bassirou Johnson, an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN that 66 cases of the highly infectious water-borne disease had been reported in slum areas of the ciy since 11 October, but there had so far been no deaths. "We have had no cholera cases since 1996, so the disease may well have come from abroad since we are surrounded by the disease," Johnson said. There have been serious outbreaks of cholera in Guinea and Sierra Leone for the past four months. Doctor Pape Salif Sow, the head of the infectious diseases department of Fann university teaching hospital, where most of the Senegalese cholera patients are being treated, said that wherever the disease came from, it had found a fertile breeding area in the slum areas of Dakar, a city of 2.5 million people. “The cases came from areas such as Reubeuss, Medina, Guediawaye and Pikine where there are sanitation problems, inadequate water and waste management, stagnant water which all favour the spread of cholera,” Sow told IRIN. ”That is why we are insisting in messages through the media that people change their behaviour by washing their hands with soap, by avoiding food from street stalls and by avoiding drinking water sold in plastic bags,” he added. Officials in Guinea and Sierra Leone told IRIN that the cholera outbreaks in those countries were now subsiding. Doctor Balla Conde, the heath coordinator of the Guinea Red Cross Society told IRIN by telephone from Conakry that there had been 1,075 cases of cholera and 93 deaths from the disease in the country since July, but the situation had been brought under control. The outbreak in Guinea, which was concentrated in the capital Conakry and coastal areas near the Sierra Leone border, eventually spread to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Amelia Gabba, the health coordinator of the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, told IRIN by telephone from Freetown that Sierra Leone had recorded 633 cases of cholera and 56 deaths from the disease up to 19 September. She pointed out that a sharp decrease in the number of new cases had led to the closure of three of the four cholera treatment units which had been opened in Freetown to deal with the crisis. Cholera epidemics are normally caused by poor sanitation and polluted drinking water. They are a perenniel hazard during the rainy season in much of West Africa as latrines overflow and wells become polluted.