Cameroon has been hit by a surge in cholera cases in the last two weeks in the country’s Southwest region, adding to a public health crisis accompanied by a rise in COVID-19 cases, according to a report by the Regional Delegation of Public Health for Southwest made public on Tuesday.

Five people have been killed and 32 cases confirmed in the region. Bamusso district has been the hardest hit with five other districts including Bakassi, Mbonge, Limbe, Tiko and Mundemba “on high alert for suspected cases,” the report said.

The report said officials were facing financial, human and material challenges to sustain response activities in the field.

“The epidemic occurs in the Southwest in a context of insecurity and humanitarian crisis, with regular movements of population to places where access to safe drinking water and latrines is limited,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) tweeted after the report was published.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

Source: Xinhuanet