YAOUNDE, March 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An outbreak of cholera in Cameroon has claimed 62 lives since October, prompting the central African nation to vaccinate people against the water-borne disease.
A donation of 800,000 vaccines from the World Health Organization allowed the country to start a campaign on March 16, Health Minister Manouada Malachie said in a tweet.
More than 2,000 cases have been reported since the epidemic started, with 29 deaths in the week leading up to March 22 alone, he said. The new cases were in South West, Littoral and Center regions, the country’s main cocoa-growing regions. The capital, Yaounde, has also recorded cases, reporting two deaths in recent days.
Cholera is an acute form of diarrhoea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration but can kill within hours if left untreated.
“We saw a spike in cases of cholera in the Southwest region between March 16 and 22, 2022, with more than 300 cases registered,” Malachie tweeted.
He said there were “20 deaths in Kumba,… two deaths in Buea,… five deaths in Tiko (and) two deaths in Yaounde”, the capital.
A total of 62 people had died since October 2021 and over the period nearly 2,100 cases had been detected, Malachie wrote, adding that the authorities were coordinating a vaccination campaign and other measures to contain the
outbreak.
Outbreaks occur periodically in Cameroon, a west African nation of more than 25 million inhabitants. The last epidemic was between January and August 2020, when 66 people died.
Cholera is caused by a germ that is typically transmitted by poor sanitation. People become infected when they swallow food or water carrying the germ.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in early 2021 there were between 1.3 and four million cases of cholera per year around the world, leading to between 21,000 and 143,000 deaths. — NNN-AGENCIES