Cholera outbreak in South Sudan ‘rapidly escalating’, aid group warns
Al Jazeera
Doctors Without Borders says fears growing that outbreak will spread from Upper Nile state to surrounding areas.
An outbreak of cholera in South South is “rapidly escalating”, a humanitarian group has warned, more than a month after the first suspected case was detected.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said on Friday that a total of 737 cholera cases were reported in Malakal, the capital of South Sudan’s Upper Nile state.
“The situation in Malakal remains critical, and we are concerned that the outbreak is spreading to neighbouring areas such as Tonga and Kodok,” Zakaria Mwatia, MSF’s head of mission in the country, said in a statement.
Cholera is an acute form of diarrhoea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration, but can kill within hours if left untreated.
It is caused by a germ that is typically transmitted through a lack of access to sanitation. People become infected when they swallow food or water carrying the bug.
