40 die of diarrhoea in northwest

At least 40 people have died in the last two-weeks from an unidentified diarrhoeal disease in three villages northwest of the capital, Bangui, an aid agency official said on Friday. Massimiliano Pedretti, the representative of the Italian NGO, Cooperazione Internazionale (Coopi), said the dead were among 300 people who had reported to clinics for treatment. He said Coopi officials had reported the problem on 29 September, adding that the EC's Humanitarian Office, ECHO had supplied Coopi with antibiotics, serum and oral rehydration salts to treat the sick in the villages of Gouze, Lemouna and Pende, near the northwestern town of Bozoum. The exact source and cause of the outbreak is unknown, but the health ministry, Coopi, Medicos Sin Fronteras, and the Pasteur Institute are conducting tests. Bozoum, like other northern towns, has lacked safe drinking water for over a year, due to the six-month rebellion against the government of former President Ange-Felix Patasse, which ended in March 2003. Pedretti said this situation could have occasioned the outbreak. A similar outbreak was detected and contained in August in Bocaranga, 510 km northwest of Bangui. Meanwhile state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on 3 October that the state water utility, the Société de Distribition des Eaux en Centrafrique, had that same day started supplying Bozoum with safe drinking water. Electricity supplies have also been restored there. The war-hit north has been benefiting from a €1.78 ECHO medical aid programme due to end in mid-November. However, "at least one more year of medical support is needed for us to be sure that the population will be able to pay for treatment", Pedretti said.