Death Toll Up in Angola Cholera Epidemic

The bird flu is not the only problem making headlines lately as a three month old cholera epidemic in Angola, Africa has now exceeded 1,300 people and it is rising daily.

Richard Veerman of Medecins Sans Frontieres told reporters in South Africa at least 31 people had died in the last 24 hours from the waterborne, bacterial disease. He said that although 31 was the official tally, the real toll could be three times higher.
The outbreak has infected more than 35,000 people, and illustrates how Africa is being crippled by preventable diseases because of poverty and a lack of infrastructure. The U.N. has said the fatality rate of the outbreak is about 4 percent, far above the 1 percent the World Health Organization considers average.

If something that is easy to treat like Cholera can effect so many people, what is going to happen if H5N1 mutates into a human disease? And isn't it sad that there are so many places in the world where we still haven't conquered the simple bacterial diseases? If we don't start working on fixing these problems, you may soon see giant quarantine signs on countries, rather than houses or towns.

Death Toll Up in Angola Cholera Epidemic [Newsvine]

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Death Toll Up in Angola Cholera Epidemic

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