Frank Mugabi
13 March 2008
Kampala — SIX people have died of cholera in Arua district. According to the district director for health services, Dr. Patrick Anguzu, 280 cases had been recorded between January and March 9.
On Saturday and Sunday alone, over 30 patients were admitted at Oli, the main treatment centre. Anguzu said the majority of the patients were from Oli, Tanganyika, Adalafu and Kenya wards.
The crowded slums lack water and sanitation facilities, he added.
The disease, which was reported in January, Anguzu added, had been also reported in Offaka, Okollo, Ajia and Pajulu sub-counties.
Anguzu commended the Medecins Sans Frontieres for providing tents to create more room at the isolation ward and the United Nations children's funds and the health ministry for availing the drugs.
To contain the disease, the district has banned selling of foodstuffs on roadsides, he said.
Anguzu added that although the cholera outbreak could be blamed on poor sanitation, it was also exacerbated by the inconsistent water supply by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC).
A water shortage hit Arua town in January when supply was cut off due to mechanical and power problems.
Officials at NWSC blamed the power shortage on the West Nile Rural Electrification Company, which reduced supply from 18 hours to only five a day.
David Ocema, the NWSC plant overseer, said there was insufficient electricity to run the purifying plant.
"We need a minimum of 10 hours of electricity supply daily to meet the demand for water. We were restricted to only one hour, complicating our operations," Ocema said.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
