Cholera epidemic spreads across famine-hit Somalia

A CHOLERA epidemic is spreading in famine-hit Somalia, with alarming numbers of cases among people driven to the capital Mogadishu by a lack of food and water, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

The intestinal infection, often linked to contaminated drinking water, causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, leaving small children especially vulnerable to death from dehydration, the United Nations agency said.

Some 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded so far this year just in Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, mainly children aged under five, causing 181 deaths, Dr Michel Yao of the WHO told a news briefing.