Via IRIN: COTE D'IVOIRE: Cholera claims eight lives in Abidjan. Excerpt:
Health experts and residents say poor hygiene exacerbated by growing piles of rubbish is largely to blame for a dry-season cholera outbreak in Côte d’Ivoire’s main city of Abidjan, which has killed eight people of 41 infected.
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative in Côte d’Ivoire Sylvie Dossou called the death rate "unacceptably high”.
The diarrhoeal disease, contracted through contaminated food or water, generally occurs during the rainy season when flooding can contaminate water sources, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But outbreaks can also occur in the dry season, WHO says.
The first case - in Abidjan’s Adjamé District (a poor neighbourhood that has seen severe post-election violence in recent weeks) - was registered in mid-January; the major rains ended in November. Cholera has also affected the district of Williamsville.
