The outbreak of an atypical strain of cholera in Uganda has killed at least 56 people and made more than 2 000 others ill since March, the East African country’s health ministry said on Friday.
”We are fighting an unusual cholera strain that has not been commonly observed in Uganda,” said Sam Zaramba, acting director of the ministry’s health-services division.
He said the ministry had sent alerts to health-care facilities about the strain and is issuing public warnings advising Ugandans that acquired resistance to typical cholera is no guarantee of being safe from the new outbreak.
Zaramba said that since the outbreak began, it has affected 11 districts in Uganda, including a Kampala slum, with 56 confirmed deaths and 2 200 total infections.
”Cholera task forces have been instituted at the district level and we are collaborating with a number of international agencies,” he said, identifying poor personal hygiene and sanitation as major causes of the strain’s appearance.
”We are concerned because cholera should have ceased to be a problem in Uganda, but personal hygiene has not improved and we are calling on the general public to improve in this area,” Zaramba said.
Cholera 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.
The Dutch chapter of Médécins sans Frontières warned last month that a lack of water in war-ravaged northern Uganda had caused an increase in cholera and other cases of waterborne diseases in that region. — Sapa-AFP