ADDIS ABABA: A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and struck more than 200 people this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for more medicine.
Several regions of Ethiopia and other African countries have been fighting cholera outbreaks in recent weeks, including Sudan and Angola.
“Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” Nigiw Gillo, an emergencies manager in 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 diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and is generally contracted by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.
It said the number of reported cholera cases rose by 13 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, with deaths from the disease surging by more than 70 percent.
Cholera killed 4,000 people in 2024, despite being “preventable and easily treatable,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last year.
Cholera kills 15 in western Ethiopia: health official
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Cholera kills 15 in western Ethiopia: health official
- “Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February,” said Gillo
- “The situation is not yet under control and we don’t have enough medication currently”
Pro-Palestinian activists stopped from disrupting Milan Cortina Olympics torch relay
- A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza
ROME: Two groups of pro-Palestinian activists were prevented by authorities from coming into contact with the opening stages of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch relay, Italian police said on Saturday.
Both groups — one of them with about 15 people — were removed before they reached the relay route in Rome, police said.
A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza.
There were also three people carrying signs in support of Venezuela near the American embassy.
In October, more than two million demonstrators marched through more than 100 Italian cities to protest the war in Gaza.
Olympic champion swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri began the relay in the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi and the torch was carried for 33 kilometers (20 miles) before ending the day in Piazza del Popolo.
The relay will cover 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.
In all, there will be 10,001 torch bearers.
The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday and Terni on Monday.
