A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and infected over 200 others this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for additional medicine.
Several Ethiopian regions and other African countries, notably Sudan and Angola, have been dealing with cases of cholera in recent weeks.
“Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” Nigiw Gillo, an emergencies manager at the Gambella region health bureau, told AFP.
“The situation is not yet under control, and we don’t have enough medication currently, and we are asking our partners to provide.”
Cholera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, and muscle cramps and is usually contracted by eating or drinking food or water infected with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The WHO hinted that the number of reported cholera cases increased by 13% in 2023 compared to the previous year, with more than 70% of deaths caused by the disease.
Cholera killed 4,000 people in 2024, despite being “preventable and easily treatable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last year.
