Cholera death toll rises to 52 in south Sudan

Feb 18, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A cholera outbreak in south Sudan has claimed 52 lives with more than 2,000 cases of the deadly disease which spreads rapidly through brimming urban centres, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.

The disease, identified this week as cholera, has infected 2,029 people in the towns of Yei and the regional capital Juba, and aid agencies are rushing to prevent the outbreak spreading to neighbouring towns.

“Chlorination of public water supplies have begun and emergency stocks of rehydration supplies … have been pre-positioned at all high-risk points,” WHO said in a statement sent to Reuters on Saturday.

Cholera causes rapid dehydration which can cause death and is spread through unclean water. Two-thirds of south Sudan’s population drinks unsafe water. The death toll has almost doubled in the past week.

After a 2005 peace deal which ended Africa’s longest civil war in Sudan’s south, hundreds of thousands of people have been returning home. They have flocked to urban centres whose already creaking infra-structures are unable to cope with the extra burden.

(Reuters)