Kinshasa, Dec 27 (AFP/APP):A vaccination drive against cholera kicked off last week targeting two million people in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization said Monday.
The highly contagious bacterial infection, which causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration, thrives in conditions of poor sanitation and contaminated water or food.
The vaccination drive began last Wednesday in Haut-Lomami, South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces, hard hit by cholera since August, the WHO’s office in the capital Kinshasa said.
Since the start of 2021, the vast central African country has reported 8,279 suspected cases of cholera and 153 deaths in 16 of its 26 provinces, the office said in a statement.
The DR Congo is also beset by malaria, which claims some 20,000 lives in the country each year, as well as Ebola, measles, yellow fever and polio, not to mention malnutrition, poverty and widespread conflict, notably in the east.
It has been relatively unscathed by Covid-19, with fewer than 13 deaths per million people — from some 75,000 cases in the country of 90 million — since the start of the pandemic.
The anti-cholera vaccination drive is the second in the former Belgian colony this year, following campaigns in March and July when more than 1.4 million people received jabs in the southeastern Haut-Katanga province.
“Cholera is a dangerous infection that can kill in a few hours if it is not treated, but it can be anticipated and is preventable,” the WHO’s Amedee Prosper Djiguimde said in the statement.
“In addition to vaccines… we are also supplying potable water and we are strengthening hygiene and cleaning to prevent the spread of the epidemic,” he said.
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