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Cholera threat for Congo remains urgent
02.09.2016 08:02 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
A massive cholera vaccination campaign is gearing up in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN Radio says referring to the WHO (UN World Health Organization) today report.
As to the report, the central African country last saw an outbreak in 2011 which lasted two years and claimed more than 400 lives, and so concerns are high because the disease has become established in the west of the country, where fatality rates are unusually high.
Reportedly, the disease has already taken hold further east along the Congo river, making a vaccination campaign less effective.
«In Mbandaka it was too late, you do the vaccination really at the beginning, when it starts, if you wait too long the impact is very limited. So here you really here have an opportunity to contain it. It’s only two weeks old - of course the time to organise it will be about a month, a bit more - that should have a better impact,» Dr Dominique Legros, WHO cholera expert, explains.
It is to be admitted, the plan to vaccinate 300,000 people in Kinshasa gets under way later this month.
It is to be reminded, cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated.
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