At least 525 Ethiopians have been diagnosed with cholera over the past few days, health officials said as the country embarked on an anti-cholera campaign.
The Deputy Director of the Ethiopia Public Health Institute, Beyene Moges, said Ethiopia had detected the cholera cases in Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, as well as the capital Addis Ababa.
Moges said the largest case of cholera patients was detected in Ethiopia’s central Oromia regional state where 236 people were diagnosed with the disease out of which two people died subsequently.
Moges said the country’s northern Amhara regional state had recorded 198 cholera cases, 14 of which died subsequently.
The official also said alarmingly Addis Ababa, which has a population of at least five million people, recorded a total of 40 cholera patients.
He confirmed that medical personnel were already giving training to local people on ways to avoid possible occurrence of cholera, as well as supplying medical supplies to treat future cases of cholera patients.
With the rainy season expected to start in mid-June and continue until mid-September, the Ethiopian government is bracing for an outbreak of cholera and is doing preparatory works to prevent the disease’s occurrence.
Federal and regional health institutions have also been combating cholera outbreaks by treating unhygienic conditions in factories, health facilities, agricultural areas and restaurants.
