GUINEA-BISSAU:
Low-Cost Treatment in Cholera Epidemic Could Save Many Lives
Mario de Queiroz
LISBON, Aug 18 (IPS) - Guinea Bissau is about to run out of intravenous
fluids and equipment essential to the low-cost life-saving treatment for
cholera, which has claimed 112 lives in this tiny West African nation since
June. An additional 6,420 patients are still at risk.
Portugal and France were the first countries to send medical aid in response
to the current epidemic. One litre of IV fluid costs just over a dollar, and
3.5 litres are enough to save a cholera patient from death by dehydration.
Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, this small nation of
36,125 sq km and 1.2 million people wedged between Senegal and Guinea on the
Atlantic coast of West Africa has failed to make it off the list of the
world's 24 poorest countries.
Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) stands at a mere 216 dollars a year,
and the main economic activity is agriculture.
The precarious economic situation, aggravated by a string of armed conflicts
over the past eight years, has made Guinea Bissau heavily dependent on
foreign aid, when it comes to fighting outbreaks of disease as well.
In 1999, a year-long civil war devastated much of the country's
infrastructure.
The first cases of cholera were reported in June in the capital, Bissau, a
city of 300,000 located on the banks of an estuary.
This week, the government declared the outbreak an epidemic, after it spread
to seven of the country's nine regions. However, 80 percent of the cases
have been reported in the capital.
Public Health Minister Maria Odete Semedo told Portuguese reporters in
Bissau Wednesday that the situation was "quite severe."
Guinea Bissau health officials quoted by the Portuguese news agency Lusa
said that in a village in the southern region of Quinara, survivors fled to
a nearby village after five members of a family died on the same day.
The health minister, who warned that the situation is "going from bad to
worse," called on the international community to help the country fight the
epidemic.
Portugal responded to the request by sending 6.5 tons of medical equipment
and medicines. France followed suit with a shipment of 1.5 tons of medical
supplies, set to arrive in Bissau on Thursday.
Doctors of the World-Portugal has also sent health professionals, who are
working with the authorities in Guinea Bissau.
The Portugal-Guinea Bissau Friendship Association launched a media campaign
Wednesday for collecting funds, IV fluids and antibiotics to send to the
affected areas.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection by the Vibrio
cholerae bacterium, usually through consuming contaminated water or food. In
an epidemic, the source of contamination tends to be the faeces of an
infected person. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate
treatment of sewage and drinking water.
Although symptoms are often mild, approximately one out of 20 patients has a
severe attack, characterised by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting and leg
cramps. In these cases, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and
shock. Without treatment, involving the administration of IV fluids, death
often occurs within hours.
The cholera bacterium may also live in brackish rivers and coastal waters.
The disease is unlikely to spread directly from one person to another.
(END/2005)
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