GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic continues to rage with 50 new cases per day

Photo: IRIN

BISSAU, 28 June 2005 (IRIN) - The cholera epidemic sweeping Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, became more serious last week, with over 300 new cases reported, said Tome Ca, the government's Director General of Health. The outbreak began on 11 June and Ca said 602 cases of the highly infectious water-borne disease had been reported by 26 June, up from 290 four days earlier, he told reporters on Monday. Local hospitals were receiving about 50 new cholera cases each day, but the epidemic had not so far spread to the interior of this small West African country, he added. Seven people have died so far in the epidemic, but Ca said there were no new deaths last week. This is the first cholera epidemic to hit Bissau for three years. The disease is generally associated with polluted drinking water and poor sanitation. It causes rapid dehydration of the body through acute diarrhoea and vomiting and can prove fatal unless treated quickly. The current epidemic coincides with the start of the rainy season, which has polluted wells in this city of 300,000 people and made the quality of drinking water in its leaky pipes even more unreliable.