Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Somalia: Cholera Deaths Soaring, Says UNICEF
MORE than 1 550 people have died from a raging cholera outbreak afflicting Somalia and the Eastern and Southern Africa Regions since the beginning of the year.

The deaths have been recorded from 102 800 outbreaks in Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Somalia accounts for 76,6 percent of the total cases reported, followed by South Sudan at 15,9 percent.

Over the past four weeks, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), Tanzania has reported the highest number of new cases with 125. Cumulatively, the conflict-torn South Sudan has recorded the highest case fatality ration.

Heavy rains have been cited as the main culprit of the outbreak but poor sanitation is commonplace in the affected regions.

Conflict and subsequent displacements in such countries as Burundi,Somalia and South Sudan have exacerbated the outbreak of the water borne disease in the respective countries.

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