*12 districts affected * 245 killed * 14,857 cases reported
A spokesman for the UN World Health Organisation in Sierra Leone has told Politico that the cholera outbreak is moving thick and fast throughout the country with 12 of the country’s 13 districts affected. The latest figures as at 30 August stand at 245 deaths and 14,857 cases reported. Koinadugu in the north is the newest district to have been hit by the epidemic with Kailahun district in the east the only place without a known case.
Inside a cholera treatment centre at Mabela in Freetown
However, Director of Disease Prevention and Control, Dr Amara Jambai says the situation is “stabilising” and has “more or less peaked”. Fears persist in some quarters though, among them international organisations, that the epidemic would take another two weeks to reach that peak.
Dr Jambai says they have started seeing a fall in the number of new cases compared to two weeks ago.
The UN World Health Organisation says they have brought in more personnel this week with experience in cholera-ravaged countries.
Medecins Sans Frontiers is running several treatment centres while 28 doctors, nurses and technicians have arrived under the aegis of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
According to the communication officer of the Sierra Leone Red Cross, Patrick Massaquoi, they are from the British, American, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and Nigerian Red Cross Societies and have brought in a mobile hospital to respond to the cholera outbreak.
(c) Politico 31/08/12
