"Cholera takes toll in W. Africa; Helped by rain, disease has killed 800 in Nigeria" by Jon Gambrell, Associated Press | September 11, 2010
GANJUWA, Nigeria — Patients jammed rudimentary clinics and health workers in surgical masks sprayed antibacterial solution on muddy paths as the government struggled to contain a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 800 Nigerians in two months.
The worst epidemic in Nigeria in 19 years is spreading to Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, where it has killed hundreds more.
In a horrible way!
At a maternity clinic and a hospital in Ganjuwa, patients with blank eyes lay contorted on mattresses fouled by severe diarrhea triggered by the cholera. Small children lying under traditional brightly colored cloth were hooked up to IV tubes as doctors tried to rehydrate them.
You know, the world seems to have plenty of money for wars and for the rulers to run around the planet.
As more and more patients arrived doctors had to put them in storerooms and concrete hallways wet with human waste.
Throughout villages like Ganjuwa and cities across West Africa, the lack of clean drinking water is allowing the waterborne bacterial disease to bloom....
Such a simple and inexpensive thing.
Salisu Garba needs only to look at a communal trash pit outside his family’s home in Ganjuwa to see how the cholera bacteria killed his 20-year-old brother. Seasonal rains have turned the trash pit into a pond of raw sewage, which seeps into nearby wells, infecting Garba’s family and others in this rural village in northern Nigeria.
Which is strange because the Globe is actually pushing the idea of a shit pit as good for the environment.
The day I see some richer out there dropping trou is the day I will take notice.
“That pond is a source of worry,’’ Garba said. “We don’t have any hope.’’
“These areas become breeding ground for cholera,’’ said Chris Cormency, a UNICEF official monitoring the epidemic.
Cormency said the disease began in Nigeria and then spread to neighboring Cameroon, where more than 300 people have died and 5,000 have fallen ill. In Chad, more than 40 have died and 600 are sickened, while the disease also has popped up in nearby Niger, he said....
After someone was found sick with cholera on a train in Cameroon, the other 1,500 people onboard panicked. Health officials gave out antibiotics and tried to decontaminate the train, media in Cameroon reported.
Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration, and possible death. The current outbreak is the worst in Nigeria since 1991, when 7,654 people died, according to the World Health Organization.
Cholera is easily preventable with clean water and sanitation but in places such as West Africa, sanitation often remains an afterthought in teeming city slums and mud walled villages.
And yet up on the hill....
In Nigeria, almost half the country’s 150 million people lack access to clean water and proper sanitation, according to the WHO, even though the government earns billions of dollars a year as one of Africa’s top oil exporters.
So who stole all the money?
Also see: Nigeria Experiences Exxon Valdez Size Spill Every Year
That can't be helping the cleanliness of the water.
--more--"
There is also a cholera crisis in East Africa but Mugabe is a monster -- or was -- so we do not talk about that.
Of course, you can't go too long until terrorists are mentioned.
BAUCHI, Nigeria — About 800 inmates escaped from a federal prison holding Muslim extremists in northern Nigeria during a sunset attack by gunmen believed to be members of a radical sect, a police official said yesterday.
The attackers went cell by cell at the prison in Bauchi, breaking open locks and setting fire to part of the prison before escaping during the confusion, said Danlami Yar’Adua, Bauchi State Police commissioner. Four people died and six others are in critical condition.
You know, the same way special operations forces go through villages.
Yar’Adua said police believe Boko Haram sect followers freed by the attack are hiding in the mountains surrounding the region’s pasturelands.
Which cave are they calling from?
Members of Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege’’ in the local Hausa language, rioted and attacked homes and police stations in July 2009, triggering a violent police crackdown. More than 700 people died. Many of those arrested following the 2009 attacks were being held at the prison pending trial.
See: The Boston Globe's African Insult: African Taliban
African Safari: Clinton Cuts Nigerian Peace Deal
I guess it didn't hold.
Yar’Adua said 36 prisoners had returned to the prison on their own by yesterday morning, hoping to serve out the remainder of their sentences.
There is a name for that syndrome that escapes me right now.
The city itself remained calm yesterday, as paramilitary police officers guarded the prison.
Also see: Nagging the Nigerian Police
Yeah, who cares if they don't do their job.
There is oil under 'em!
