Cholera Kills 272 in Cameroon

Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health,  Manaouda Malachie, on Thursday said cholera has spread to eight of the country’s 10 regions including the Center region, killing 272 people since October 2021.

Manaouda told a press briefing in the capital city of Yaounde that as of October 20, 12,952 people were known to have been infected.

Efforts were underway to stop the disease from spreading but people needed to observe basic hygienic rules and go for treatment immediately if they noticed symptoms, the minister stressed.

On Wednesday, health officials in Southwest where the highest number of deaths and cases had been recorded,  began vaccinating children in schools against cholera as part of nationwide measures to curb the disease.

Officials blamed poor sanitation and hygiene conditions for the spread of the epidemic.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterised in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhoea that can lead to death by severe dehydration. (Xinhua/NAN)