Cholera outbreak kills 100 and puts millions in Nigeria at risk

A cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed up to 100 lives in the past two weeks, the UN said yesterday.

More than 3,000 cases have been recorded in the states of Yobe and Borno in a region that is also grappling with a Boko Haram insurgency, it said.

“The cumulative number of recorded cases in both states currently stands at 3,126 including 97 deaths,” the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The outbreak was declared two weeks ago in Borno, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in camps.

Boko Haram has intensified its attacks in recent months.

On Wednesday, the UN reported that more than 500 people have died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, in the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years.

It said more than six million people could be affected by the outbreak without urgent action to control it. Expected floods and heavy rains were “an ideal environment for the outbreak to spread”, the UN warned.

It said Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, was the worst-hit with 24,000 cases.

Cholera is caused by a bacterium transmitted through contaminated food or drinking water. It causes acute diarrhoea.

Water-borne diseases are a threat in the Lake Chad region because of inadequate sanitation and stagnant groundwater during the rainy season.