Diarrhoea kills 20 children in the south

An outbreak of watery diarrhoea in Afmadow District in southwestern Somalia has claimed the lives of at least 20 children during the past 10 days, medical sources said on Monday. "At least 20 children under the age of five have died in the last 10 days of watery diarrhoea," said Hassan Mursal, a clinical officer of Afmadow District Hospital. Some 50 people were arriving at the facility to seek treatment for diarrhoea every day, he said. Mursal blamed the outbreak on contaminated water drawn from wells in the area. "We suspect the problem is the water people are drinking, but unfortunately we don't have chlorine to treat the wells. There is little we can do, because we are running out of ORS [oral rehydration salts] and the small children need IVs, which we don't have," he said. The highest one-day fatality rate was "on 11 June, when nine people - six of them children - died," he said. "I suspect the number [of fatalities] is much higher, because many people don't make it to the hospital and are buried immediately," said Mursal, who appealed for medicines and water-purification kits. "If they do not come soon, many more people will die," he said.