Health Alerts

Africa: AWD and Cholera spike. Acute watery diarrhea (AWD) and cholera outbreaks have been reported in a number of countries in Central Africa, including Ethiopia, Congo Democratic Republic and Nigeria.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, cholera has caused more than 102, 800 notifications and 1550 deaths since the beginning of 2017 in Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

According to a report in  All Africa, Somalia accounts for 76.6 % of the total cases reported, followed by South Sudan at 15.9%. Heavy rains have been the main culprit of the outbreak but poor sanitation is commonplace in the affected regions. Conflict and subsequent displacements in such countries as Burundi, Somalia, and South Sudan have exacerbated the outbreak of the water borne disease in the respective countries. Read more