Cholera in Angola has spread to a 15th province as the death toll reached 2 089 and the number of cases exceeded 50 000, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
”The southern province of Kuando Kubango confirmed cholera cases on July 19,” the WHO said in a statement, issued in the capital.
”Up to now there were 48 cumulative cases and six deaths,” it added, as the province for the first time reported an outbreak of the water-borne disease.
From February 13 to July 23 this year, ”a total of 50 768 cumulative cases and 2 089 deaths have been reported in 15 out of the 18 provinces” in Angola, the statement said.
It added that 62 new cases and two deaths had been reported in the previous 24 hours.
The highest toll since February was recorded in the eastern coastal province of Benguela with 517 deaths, followed by 302 fatalities in Luanda and 244 in the Malange region.
Angola’s current epidemic, one of Africa’s worst, was first detected in February.
The deadly but easily treatable water-borne disease broke out in Luanda’s northern slum of Boa Vista and rapidly spread throughout the seaside capital and to other parts of the oil-rich Southern African country.
The spread of the water-borne disease has been exacerbated by poor sanitation, an acute lack of drinking water and inadequate infrastructure.
Angola’s devastating 27-year war that ended in 2002 wreaked havoc on its infrastructure. – Sapa-AFP