Cholera threat receding, medical official says

Medical authorities hope the cholera outbreak in the Republic of Congo has been contained as no more deaths have been reported since Sunday.

"The disease is already contained in Pointe-Noire," Henri Parra, the director-general of the National Public Health Laboratory, said on Tuesday.

This assessment, he said, was based on the reduced daily death toll. When the disease broke out in Pointe-Noire, an average of eight people died a day, he said, "but today we have only one death or sometimes nothing".

The epidemic broke out in January in Pointe-Noire, the country's second-largest city of some 800,000 residents. Nationwide, 60 people have died so far. Four of the dead were in Brazzaville, the capital.

Both cities host more than half of the country's estimated 3.1 million inhabitants. Medical authorities have set up three health centres in Pointe-Noire offering free treatment to cholera patients. The University of Brazzaville Teaching Hospital is providing similar care.

The government has also set up sub-commissions providing advice to the public on hygiene precautions against the disease. "The public must pay attention to water and must avoid buying and consuming all that is sold in the street. Water must be boiled for long, especially when it comes from a doubtful source," Parra said.

Medical authorities are still waiting for the government to release 220 million CFA francs (US$451,710) to help fight the disease, but the United Nations World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières have already provided water purification drugs.

Parra said the outbreak was thought to have been caused by heavy rains and poor hygiene conditions in Pointe-Noire. The disease, he said, could have reached Brazzaville via passengers on the regular air flights that link both cities.

lmm/oss/mw