UNICEF appeals for funds to fight severe cholera outbreak in Angola

With 1,000 people already dead from cholera in Angola, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is appealing for $1 million to fight the most severe outbreak of the disease there since 1988.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the ongoing rainy season has made it likely that the epidemic will spread further despite efforts by UNICEF, WHO, the Angolan Government and other partners to get care and medication to the sick.

Cholera, an acute intestinal disease caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, causes copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment, including rehydration, is not given promptly. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.

Apart from significant human suffering, the disease disrupts social and economic structures and puts tremendous strain on already precarious national health systems. Seasonal factors, such as the rainy season, contribute to the disease's spread.

UNICEF has distributed hundreds of thousands of sachets of oral rehydration salts as well as thousands of kilos of calcium hypochlorite to treat water at source for distribution to communities, benefiting over 200,000 people daily.

It has also supplied and installed many water tanks, bladders and jerry cans in the capital, Luanda, as well as water treatment kits to supply treated water for tens of thousands of households.

The agency is continuing to distribute soap, boots, gloves, aprons, first aid kits, essential drugs and calcium hypochlorite in affected provinces, and providing technical assistance, tents and basic equipment for establishing cholera control treatment centres.

It is also training social mobilizers and disseminating social communication materials such as training manuals, posters, leaflets and CDs, to affected communities.