GUINEA-BISSAU: Government says cholera crisis over

Photo: Jeanet Ravn/PSB

Nearly 400 people died in Guinea Bissau's cholera epidemic this year

BISSAU, 27 December 2005 (IRIN) - Guinea-Bissau’s government has declared that the worst of the cholera epidemic, which ravaged the country in the second half of this year, is over - for now. “The cholera threat in our country is passing but we have to remain vigilant if we want to avoid a resurgence in Guinea-Bissau,” said Public Health Minister Antonia Mendes Teixeira, at the country’s biggest hospital on Tuesday. She said that the last three weeks have brought no new cases of the disease, which according to a new health ministry report, affected 25,111 people and killed 399 since the epidemic began in June. Nevertheless, special medical teams deployed to each of the country’s health districts to help stem the tide of the disease will remain in place. Cholera, which thrives in poor sanitary conditions, is a recurring problem in much of West Africa but was particularly devastating this year because of the region’s unusually heavy rainy season. The severity of the epidemic, which infected tens of thousands and killed hundreds in the world’s poorest region, prompted the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last month to ask for international assistance to the tune of US $3.2 million, half of which would be destined for Guinea-Bissau. The appeal, the first of its kind in West Africa, went unanswered and not a single donation was received. In the meantime, the situation on the ground slowly improved as the rainy season passed. “We consider that, since 21 December, the situation is under control in Guinea-Bissau,” said OCHA’s Maya Siblini, adding that the number of cases was down throughout the region, including neighbouring Senegal also hard hit this year. Cholera, an acute intestinal infection, can lead to severe dehydration and death within 24 hours but it is often treatable with a cheap and simple mixture of clean water, sugar and salts. As new cases of the disease rose to over 100 a day in August, the government urged people to adopt basic hygiene measures such as regular hand washing and boiling of drinking water to arrest the spread of cholera. But treatment efforts were hampered particularly in rural areas as roads flooded, making access more difficult than usual in a country whose infrastructure lies in ruins after the violence of the 1998-99 coup and the ensuing years of neglect.