MSF Alerts to ‘Rapidly Spreading’ Cholera Outbreak Amid 31 Deaths in Ethiopia | Health News

The global medical charity reports that the situation has deteriorated with the arrival of refugees from South Sudan, where thousands are infected.

At least 31 people have died from a “rapidly spreading” cholera outbreak that has infected more than 1,500 individuals in Ethiopia’s Gambella region over the past month, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF.

The international medical charity stated on Friday that the situation has worsened due to the influx of people fleeing violence in neighboring South Sudan.

“Cholera is rapidly spreading across western Ethiopia, and in parallel, the outbreak in South Sudan is ongoing, endangering thousands of lives,” MSF said in a statement.

Several regions of Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation with approximately 120 million people, are grappling with cholera outbreaks, with Amhara – its second-largest region – among the hardest hit.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection transmitted through food and water contaminated with the *Vibrio cholerae* bacterium, often of fecal origin.

South Sudan

In South Sudan’s Akobo County, located in the Upper Nile region, 1,300 cholera cases have been reported in the past four weeks, according to MSF. The organization noted that recent violence in the Upper Nile area between the South Sudanese government and armed groups is “exacerbating the outbreak.”

“Thousands are being displaced, losing access to healthcare, safe water, and sanitation,” MSF said.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation and still plagued by chronic instability and poverty, declared a cholera epidemic in October last year.

“In Ethiopia, we are treating patients, providing clean water, and raising awareness about the disease. In South Sudan, we are delivering lifesaving care,” MSF reported.

“Urgent support to health facilities, provision of safe water, and a cholera vaccination campaign are needed in the affected areas to halt the spread of the disease.”

Preventable Disease

According to the World Health Organization, about 4,000 people died from this “preventable and easily treatable disease” in 2023, a 71 percent increase from the previous year, mostly in Africa.

The threat of cholera spreading in Ethiopia is further complicated by rising tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which observers warn could escalate into armed conflict.

These concerns stem from renewed instability in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where a civil war from 2020 to 2022 claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.