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March 25, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Cholera Death Toll in Congo Nears 600--UN"

Reuters (www.reuters.com) (03/22/02); O'Reilly, Finbarr

The World Health Organization announced Friday that Congo's worst cholera epidemic in four years has left at least 586 people dead since November 2001, and the death toll is expected to increase. According to health officials in the African country, at least 7,782 people are known to have come down with the disease so far. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through contaminated food and water, and if left untreated, cholera will kill about half of its victims.  If proper treatment programs are set up, however, the fatality rate is generally less than 1 percent, and about three weeks ago, an emergency team with officials from Medecins Sans Frontieres, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator, and UNICEF was sent to the country to get such a program organized.

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