GUINEA-BISSAU: Cholera epidemic reaches capital, Bissau

DAKAR, 10 July 2008 (IRIN) - So far across the country 325 cases have been reported and twelve people have died.

“We are still assessing the situation but we could be looking at two separate outbreaks,” Kertesz told IRIN, “We managed to contain the situation in Tomboli going several weeks with no cases, but then it broke out in Bissau.”

Cholera is essentially a disease of poor sanitation that occurs in areas where people lack access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. The WHO describes it as “one of the key indicators of social development” because it only occurs regularly in poorly developed countries.

Intervention

The Ministry of Health is working with its partners, including the WHO and the UN children's fund UNICEF, as well as many non-governmental organisations and civil society groups, on a two-pronged strategy to try to prevent people from contracting the disease as well as to contain it.

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