Famine-struck Somalia faces cholera outbreak

AN OUTBREAK of cholera is adding to Somalia's woes. Almost 4 million people in the Horn of Africa are already at risk of famine following the region's worst drought in 60 years. Now the World Health Organization reports that 18 of 30 stool samples it collected earlier this month from refugees have tested positive for the bacteria that cause cholera, confirming <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>coupon </strong></a> the arrival of a disease that killed more than 4000 in Zimbabwe in 2009, and 1400 in Haiti last year. "Multiple rumours of outbreaks are being investigated," says Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the WHO. To contain possible outbreaks, the UN Children's Fund has sent cholera kits - each able to treat 500 cases - to areas with rapidly increasing numbers of people with acute watery diarrhoea, often a prelude to the arrival of cholera. In Mogadishu's Banadir hospital alone, there have been 4272 cases of acute diarrhoea since January, 181 of them fatal. "It's very likely that some of the cases of diarrhoea are actually cholera," says Sandy Cairncross of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. <a href="http://www.couponcatch.net/ "><strong>payless coupons </strong></a> "It's important to admit cholera cases and not call it diarrhoea, and not to stigmatise those who have it, as happened in Zimbabwe and elsewhere." There are no plans to vaccinate against cholera, because it is seen as an expensive and complicated process. "The best <a href="http://gellarfan.org/##############/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-4667"><strong>Finding the optimum Ladies Watches | Authors Article</strong></a> vaccine is soap and water," says Cairncross. If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.