ETHIOPIA: Watery diarrhoea cases on the rise

ADDIS ABABA, 3 May 2006 (IRIN) - Watery diarrhoea has claimed the lives of 10 people and infected more than 1,400 others in the Gambella regional state in western Ethiopia since 15 April, said Turuwork Tafesse, director of disease surveillance for the country’s health ministry. "We suspect cholera, but we haven't confirmed it yet," Turuwork said, adding that samples had been sent last Thursday for analysis. "The results are expected by the end of the week, or beginning of next week." "It is a concern for us," said William Robertson, representative of Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) in Ethiopia. "We are at the very early stage of an intervention that could last three or four months." He said 286 people with watery diarrhoea had been admitted to hospitals in Gambella and Itang (west of Gambella) within a week’s time. "New cases are being reported daily in different locations,” said the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in its weekly report on Ethiopia on Monday. “All centres are overwhelmed by this extraordinary load, and the regional health bureau has pledged to strengthen human resources.” According to Unicef, the problem had been exacerbated by a severe shortage of clean drinking water at Gambella hospital. The agency had sent supplies, including pillow water tanks, shelter material, oral-rehydration salts, emergency water-treatment units and drugs worth US$543,000 to Gambella. The Ethiopian health ministry reported five cases of watery diarrhoea in camps of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), where refugees from southern Sudan are waiting to return home. The repatriation of the refugees that began at the end of March has been suspended because of logistical problems and as a preventive measure since the diarrhoea outbreak, according to humanitarian sources. During the last diarrhoea epidemic in 2002, the Ethiopian health ministry did not confirm whether it was cholera, which is a waterborne disease that causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting and can be fatal if not treated within 24 hours. It can be prevented by washing hands before handling food and avoiding contaminated drinking water.