Friday 24 August 2012

Sierra Leone: Cholera epidemic worsens


The number of people dying due to Cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone is increasing. According to WHO Global Alert and response (GAR), there have been 11653 cases with 216 deaths since the begging of the year. The rate of new cases has accelerated rapidly since the beginning of August: since then, 5 706 cases have been recorded, and two new districts, Bonthe and Kono, have been affected by the epidemic. Ten of the country’s 13 districts are now registering cases and this spread emphasizes the need to rapidly scale up the response.
The government in partnership with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), UNICEF, WHO, Red Cross and other partners, is implementing the following prevention and control activities: epidemiological investigation, surveillance, case management at established cholera treatment centres, water and sanitation control measures, social mobilization and community education.
There has been a concern that somecommunities are not reached by the interventions, raising the suspicion that the number of people affected might increase significantly in the next month.
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that causes a large amount of watery diarrhea.It is caused by a bacterium vibrio Cholera that releases a toxin that causes increased release of water from cells in the intestines, which produces severe diarrhoea.  Cholera occurs in places with poor sanitation, crowding, war, and famine

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