FREETOWN (AFP) — At least 20 people have died from cholera in the past two weeks in poverty-stricken west African country of Sierra Leone, a government health official said Thursday.
Alhassan Sesay, director of disease prevention and control in the ministry of health, said 15 of the deaths were recorded in the northern district of Kambia, near the border with Guinea, while five were registered in a village on the outskirts of the capital Freetown.
Emergency health workers have been drafted to both areas to step up treatment and prevention campaigns to stem the outbreak that has struck dozens of people, he told reporters.
The last major cholera epidemic hit the war-scarred country last year killing at least 77 people over a three-month period between August and October.
The disease is an acute intestinal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with the cholera bacteria. If not treated immediately it can cause rapid loss of body fluids and can be fatal.
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