A cholera epidemic in war-devastated Angola has claimed 1 246 lives with more than 35 000 people ill with the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
”As of 15th May, Angola reported a total of 35 033 cumulative cases and 1 246 deaths in 11 of the 18 provinces,” since its detection on February 13, the WHO said in a statement.
”In the last 24 hours 615 new cases including 16 deaths have been reported,” it said.
Cholera, a highly infectious waterborne disease that causes severe diarrhoea, is present in large swathes of Angola, whose health care system has not recovered from a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.
According to the UN, only 50% of Angolans have access to safe water.
In Luanda, Angola’s capital of four-million, more than two-thirds of residents live in shantytowns.
Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest oil producer after Nigeria, and is currently enjoying an economic boom, registering double-digit growth and receiving billions of dollars in revenue from oil.
But about 70% of its population lives in dire poverty. – Sapa-AFP