Jun 24 2011
Three cases of cholera have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital of Kinshasa, "home to at least 9 million people, many of whom live in cramped, unsanitary conditions," Reuters reports.
A cholera outbreak in Bandundu province has already sickened more than 680 and killed 32 people. Traders traveling down the Congo River have carried the disease to the capital, leading health officials "to step up surveillance at Kinshasa's river ports and identify hospitals that could take patients" (Hogg, 6/22).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |