Malawi delays reopening schools as cholera cases surge
Blantyre, Malawi Reuters Malawi has delayed the opening of public schools in the southern African country’s two major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, the health minister said Monday, to try to slow down a surge in cholera deaths. The total number of cases and deaths has accelerated to 17,824 and 595 respectively since cases were […]
Malawi cholera death toll crosses 400 as outbreak spreads
Lilongwe, Malawi Reuters The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Malawi has jumped to over 400, Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda said on Thursday, appealing to people in the worst-hit areas to get vaccinated. The total number of cases and deaths has accelerated to 13,837 and 410 respectively since cases were first reported in March, […]
We’ve run out of cholera vaccines, WHO official says as disease surges
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters The global stockpile of cholera vaccines the World Health Organization helps manage is “currently empty or extremely low”, a WHO official said on Friday amid a resurgence of the disease around the world. The UN health agency says global fatality rates are rising and there are around 30 countries around the world […]
UNICEF study shows kids make up 40 per cent of Haiti’s cholera cases
Reuters Some two in five of Haiti’s growing number of cholera cases are among children, the United Nation’s children’s agency warned on Wednesday, saying youth suffering from severe malnutrition ran three times the risk of dying from the bacterial disease. Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has suffered a series of disasters in recent […]
Poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria
Damascus, SyriaReuters Poor access to safe water has exacerbated a cholera outbreak rampaging across Syria’s war-battered provinces, where local authorities are struggling to contain the spread with chlorine tablets and vaccines. More than 35,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported across the country, according to the United Nations’ children’s agency. UNICEF said only approximately […]
Battling cholera, Lebanon gets first vaccines, and sharp words, from France
Beirut, LebanonReuters Lebanon took delivery on Monday of its first vaccines to combat a worsening cholera outbreak – together with sharply worded criticism of the crisis-hit country’s crumbling public health infrastructure from donor nation France. By Sunday, cases of cholera – a disease typically spread through contaminated water, food or sewage – stood at 1,447, […]
Cholera outbreak hits Syrian refugees sheltering in camps in Lebanon
Qub Elias, Lebanon Reuters Syrian refugees in displacement camps are falling victim to a cholera outbreak in Lebanon, already suffering from an economic meltdown that has slashed access to clean water and strained hospitals. Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in early October – signalling the return of the bacteria for the first time in […]
US to support Haiti police and deliver aid to counter gangs
Washington DC, USReuters The United States on Wednesday said it will boost support for the Haitian police as they battle armed gangs and will speed up delivery of aid to a country suffering from crippling shortages of basic goods due to a gang blockade of a key fuel terminal. Haitian gangs have for a month […]
In Syria, mounting cholera cases pose threat across frontlines
Idlib/Hasaka, SyriaReuters A cholera outbreak that has claimed at least 29 lives in Syria is posing a danger across the frontlines of the country’s 11-year-long war, stirring fears in crowded camps for the displaced who lack running water or sewage systems. First linked to contaminated water near the Euphrates river, the outbreak has now spread across the fractured […]
Updated: Ukraine pleads for more weapons, cholera spreads in Mariupol
Updated: 12:50pm (AEST)Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Ukraine pleaded to Western countries for faster deliveries of weapons as better-armed Russian forces pounded the east of the country, and for humanitarian support to combat growing outbreaks of deadly diseases. In Sievierodonetsk, the small city that has become the focus of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine and one of […]