The Country Representative of the UN World Health Organisation to Sierra Leone, Dr Wondimagenehu Alemu says the current nationwide outbreak of cholera in the country has killed 212 people as at Saturday 19 August and the “numbers [are] increasing dramatically”.
This brings to nearly 150 those killed in the last one month alone.
Speaking to Politico Dr Alemu says ten of the country’s thirteen districts are now affected with the capital, Freetown, the hardest hit. Tonkolili, Kambia and Port Loko in the north also recording high cases.
Kono in the east and Bonthe in the south are the latest areas to report cases of the epidemic. The WHO representative warns that any town that has transport links with Freetown is prone to cholera.
“Practically all cities that are linked to Freetown could be affected because there is a high mobility of people from Freetown to other cities” he says.
11,400 cases have been reported as at last week with new figures indicating a dramatic rise, health ministry and UN officials say.
This puts the fatality ratio at 1.9% which the WHO representative says is extremely high, adding that his agency has brought into the country personnel to help fight the outbreak and plans to bring in more.
Some medics in the north have told Politico that they are running short of badly-needed drugs especially fluids which are needed to revive people fully blown. Staff are also said to be exhausted owing to the increasing number of cases.
On Thursday President Ernest Bai Koroma declared the outbreak, the worst in the country in 15 years, a humanitarian crisis. This should prioritise the response to the epidemic and makes resources available to deal with it.
The government had asked for $ 5 million from donors but was only able to raise half the amount, according to health minister Zainab Bangura who also told Politico that their facilities had been “overstretched”.
The UN now says $ 7 million is needed “to address only the current immediate response”.
