The death toll after a deadly outbreak of cholera in war-devasted Angola has climbed to 900, a medical humanitarian organisation said on Thursday, reporting one death every hour this week.
”Ten weeks after the confirmation of the first case of cholera in Luanda, some 20 000 people are infected of which 900 have died,” Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a statement, released in the capital.
”By Tuesday, 929 new cases and 25 new deaths were reported,” the non-governmental organisation said.
The last toll reported by the United Nations’s World Health Organisation stood at 570 just over a week ago.
Cholera, a highly infectious waterborne disease that causes severe diarrhoea, is now present in large swathes of the vast south-western African country.
”This week, MSF listed an average of 30 new infected people and a death every hour,” it said.
MSF urged the Angolan government and international aid organisations to intensify attempts to contain the epidemic.
”Everybody was slow to react,” said Richard Veerman, who heads MSF’s Belgian wing in Luanda. ”Many factors contributed to make this cholera epidemic, one of the worst in Angola,” he said in the statement.
”But from what we know today, there are no more excuses. All should be done that is humanly possible to stop the loss of more human lives,” he said.
MSF said 240 new patients were admitted in Luanda in the last 24 hours. The organisation added two new tents to cope with a stream of patients.
A devastating 27-year civil war ended in Angola in 2002. MSF said the country was mainly spared from major epidemics, especially from cholera because people did not move around because of the conflict.
”Consequently, the population is not very resistant to the bacterium that causes cholera,” MSF said in the statement.
”People are told very little of what they can do to protect themselves and their communities from infection,” it said.
”In all events, this epidemic is out of control,” said Luis Encinas, a coordinator in the fight against cholera.
”It’s crucial that the authorities define and implement a national strategy in order to contain the disease, give free drinking water and improve conditions of hygiene,” he said.
”They should also set up an effective epidemiology data-gathering system and intensify the public awareness campaign, especially outside of the capital,” Encinas said. – Sapa-AFP