Cholera kills 46 people in southwestern mining village

At least 46 people have died in the past two weeks as a result of a cholera outbreak in southwestern Nigeria, a state health official said on Thursday. All the deaths occurred in the village of Kusa, 50 kilometres from the Oyo State capital, Ibadan, which is mainly populated by self-employed miners digging in stone quarries and prospecting for small quantities of gold in the surrounding hills. “Our record shows 46 people have died of cholera in Kusa and more than 100 are in hospital,” Lekan Kolade, the spokesman for Oyo state's health ministry, told IRIN. Kolade said the state government has rushed medical teams to Kusa and surrounding areas and the epidemic was now under control. Cholera, an acute intestinal infection spread by contaminated water and food, causes severe violent diarrhoea and vomiting, which leads to rapid dehydration of the body and can prove fatal unless treated quickly. Outbreaks of the epidemic are common in different parts of Nigeria, as a majority of the population lack access to clean water. Kolade said the Oyo State government has pledged to build bore holes in Kusa to alleviate the water supply problems of the villagers who depend on open wells, streams and ponds for their drinking water.