At least 23 people have died of cholera in two weeks in eastern Ethiopia, which has been hit by severe floods, lamented the NGO Save the Children on Thursday, fearing that the epidemic in the region is becoming “uncontrollable”.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with a bacterium, bacillus vibrio cholerae or cholera vibrio.
Three quarters of those infected show no symptoms. However, in 10 to 20% of cases, the illness can be severe, causing severe diarrhea and vomiting, leading to accelerated dehydration.
In the Somalia region of eastern Ethiopia, hit by heavy rains, “772 cases of cholera have been confirmed and 23 deaths from this deadly disease have been recorded in just two weeks,” says a press release from Save the Children, emphasizing that more than 80% of the Cases involve children under 5 years old.
Although no cases have been recorded since mid-September, “a deadly combination of flooded water systems, lack of basic sanitation and damaged water treatment plants has led to a surge in this disease,” the NGO continued.
The cholera epidemic in Ethiopia, but also in the Horn of Africa, “could spiral out of control if the government and donors do not take rapid action to provide clean water and sanitation to communities forced to evacuate their homes due to flooding to provide facilities”. , Save the Children warned.
Flooding caused by heavy rains in Ethiopia has killed at least 57 people and displaced more than 600,000 others, mostly in southern Ethiopia, according to the UN Humanitarian Coordination Agency (Ocha).
Bad weather associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon also killed more than 100 people in Somalia and 120 people in Kenya.