Cholera kills 42 in northern city of Kano, say hospital officials

A cholera outbreak has killed at least 42 people and infected hundreds of others in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, hospital officials said on Wednesday, making Africa's most populous nation the latest to be afflicted with disease.

Ashiru Rajab, director of the government-owned Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kano said all the deaths were recorded in his hospital from 22 October. Another 629 people were also treated for symptoms of the disease.

“So far 42 have died and others have either received treatment and gone home or still in hospital,” Rajab told reporters.

Cholera, an acute intestinal infection spread by contaminated water and food, causes severe violent diarrhoea and vomiting, which leads to rapid dehydration of the body and can prove fatal unless treated quickly.

Nigeria is the latest in a long line of West Africa countries to have reported serious cholera outbreaks this year. Around 100 people have died from cholera in Guinea, and Sierra Leone has seen more than 50 deaths. In other countries, like Senegal, the disease has returned for the first time in eight years.

A government spokesman for Kano state, said health agencies had embarked on an intense information campaign to alert the public to the dangers of the epidemic and how to curb it. Some four million people live in Kano city.