WHO warns millions at risk of cholera and measles in Ethiopia

Five million people are at risk of cholera in drought-hit Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhoea has broken out in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on 15 July. “Overall, 8.8 million people are at risk of malaria and five million of cholera (in Ethiopia),” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said. Ethiopian health officials have confirmed cases of acute watery diarrhoea in the Somali, Afar and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia. “It is not confined to the refugees.” WHO is delivering emergency health kits to Ethiopia and helping train health workers in detecting disease outbreaks. Drought across the Horn of Africa, now affecting more than 11 million people in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia, has increased the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, especially polio, cholera and measles, the WHO says. “So far WHO has not received any report of polio cases, it really important to help countries to keep their polio-free...