Cholera epidemic kills 23 people

Torrential rains and inadequate supplies of safe drinking water have led to a cholera epidemic in Guinea which has so far killed 23 people, Health Minister Amara Cisse said. He told state television on Thursday night that 183 cases of the highly infectious disease had been reported throughout the country, of which 93 came from the district around Kindia, a provincial town 120 km east of the capital Conakry "We are now living with a cholera epidemic in this country," Cisse said, mentioning that other cases had been reported in Conakry and in the northern towns of Siguiri and Mandiana, near the border with Mali. The health minister blamed the outbreak on poor drinking water facilities in rural areas, but said the situation had been aggravated by torrential rains over the past month. Cholera causes violent diarrhoea and vomiting which leads to rapid dehydration of the body. It can prove fatal unless treated quickly. Cholera epidemics are normally caused by poor sanitation and polluted drinking water. They are perennial hazard during the rainy season in much of West Africa as latrines overflow and wells become polluted. Guinea has a history of annual cholera outbreaks and for the past two years, Conakry, a city of more than two million people, has suffered chronic water shortages as a result of its dilapidated infrastructure. The health minister said the government was doing all it could to contain the outbreak by taking charge of infected people admitted to hospital, and launching a public health awareness campaign to help people avoid the risk of infection.