ADDIS ABABA: A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and affected more than 200 people this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for more medicine.
Several regions of Ethiopia and other African countries have been fighting cholera outbreaks in recent weeks, including Sudan and Angola.
“Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” Nigiw Gillo, an emergencies manager in the Gambella region health bureau, told AFP.
“The situation is not yet under control and we don’t have enough medication currently, and we are asking our partners to provide.”
Cholera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, and muscle cramps, and is generally contracted by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organisation.
It said the number of reported cholera cases rose by 13 per cent in 2023 from a year earlier, with deaths from the disease surging by more than 70 per cent.
According to the UN health agency, it is a global public health threat and indicates inequity and lack of social and economic development. Access to safe water, basic sanitation, and hygiene are essential to prevent cholera and other waterborne diseases.
Cholera killed 4,000 people in 2024, despite being “preventable and easily treatable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last year.
WHO urges countries to have strong epidemiological and laboratory surveillance to swiftly detect and monitor outbreaks and guide responses.
