Cholera kills 15 in western Ethiopia: health official

A cholera outbreak in western Ethiopia has killed 15 people and struck more than 200 people this month, a regional health official said Friday, appealing for more medicine.

Several regions of Ethiopia and other African countries have been fighting cholera outbreaks in recent weeks, including Sudan and Angola.

"Fifteen people have died, and we have 234 cases since the beginning of February," Nigiw Gillo, an emergencies manager in the Gambella region health bureau, told AFP.

"The situation is not yet under control and we don't have enough medication currently, and we are asking our partners to provide."

Cholera causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, and is generally contracted by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.

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It said the number of reported cholera cases rose by 13 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, with deaths from the disease surging by more than 70 percent.

Cholera killed 4,000 people in 2024, despite being "preventable and easily treatable," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last year.