Cholera breaks out in Bujumbura

Health officials in Burundi have moved to control an outbreak of cholera in the capital, Bujumbura, and the surrounding Bujumbura Rural Province, where a total of 90 cases of the disease have been recorded, an official said on Tuesday.

The Health Ministry has launched a campaign to spray households of those affected in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease. No deaths have so far been reported.

"All the affected people who manage to reach health centres are attended to free of charge," Dr Patrice Barasukana, the health manager for Bujumbura Rural, said.

The health manager of Bujumbura city, Dismas Nduwimana, said 76 cases had so far been recorded while Barasukana said 13 cases had been reported in the province.

Nduwimana said nine of those affected in the city reached the Prince Regent Charles Clinic on Tuesday.

They came from Kamenge, Gihosha, Gasenyi, Gituro and Mutakura locations in the north of the capital. He said five other new cases - from Nkenga, Masama, Gisyo, Busoro and Kajiji in Kanyosha, a southern commune in Bujumbura - were admitted to the Kanyosha Health Centre.

In Bujumbura Rural, Barasukana said, most of the affected patients were from villages bordering Kanyosha Commune. He said the cases were reported at Nkenga, Ruziba and Kimina. Four cases were recorded at Rugembe, Kiremba, and Gakungwe in Kabezi Commune and Burima in Mutambu Commune.

Efforts to control the disease include mobilising health teams to ensure rules of hygiene were being observed in the affected areas, Barasukana said.

Meetings to assess the magnitude of the situation were also being held. "The major challenge is lack of water in our health centres," he said, adding that this was likely to exacerbate the situation.

Health officials were also providing anti-cholera drugs in the city as well as in the province to curb the spread of the outbreak.

Nduwimana said besides the lack of clean water, consumption of food prepared in the street had contributed to the cholera outbreak.

Some of the patients had started to leave health centres after receiving medical care.

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