A cholera outbreak in Ethiopia has infected 6,789 people, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Thursday.
In a Humanitarian Bulletin report published on Thursday, UNOCHA said 6,789 people living in some Ethiopian regional states have been infected by cholera between January and August 2020.
Some 4,819 cholera cases were reported in Southern regional state, 1,319 cholera cases were reported in Somali regional states and 651 cholera cases were reported in Oromia regional state, said the report.
The drastic lack of safe water supply and sanitation services across most of Ethiopia is forcing populations to resort to the use of unprotected water sources, it said.
The twin threats of the rainy season and the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increases the risk of cholera in various parts of Ethiopia, it added.
The report called on Ethiopian authorities and humanitarian partners to implement some early action measures in very high-risk areas before the cholera outbreak expands to the rest of the country and gets out of control.
In recent years, Ethiopian federal and regional health institutions have also been combating cholera outbreaks by treating unhygienic conditions in factories, medical facilities, agricultural areas and restaurants.
