Rainy season to worsen Chad cholera outbreak

A cholera outbreak that has killed more than 100 people in Chad could worsen this June as the rainy season starts in the Central African country, Oxfam warned on Wednesday. “We are concerned that the rainy season is arriving and that can provoke a quick and catastrophic rise in the number of cases,” Abakar Mahamat, Oxfam country director for Chad, said in a statement. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with bacteria, which causes profuse diarrhoea and vomiting. Infected people can die of profound dehydration, sometimes within a matter of hours, if it is not treated. Chad’s cholera epidemics usually occur in rainy seasons when houses and latrines flood and contaminated water collects in stagnant pools. Last year, more than 6,800 people were infected and 209 died from the disease, while the country’s August and...