Six test positive for cholera in Myanmar commercial hub
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Nine people from a "squatter ward" in Yangon were hospitalised for severe diarrhoea.
PHOTO: AFP
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YANGON – Six people in Myanmar’s biggest city have tested positive for cholera, a junta spokesman said on July 6, adding that it had ordered the temporary closure of restaurants in the area.
Nine people living in a “squatter ward” in the commercial hub of Yangon were hospitalised for severe diarrhoea and one later tested positive for cholera, according to spokesman Zaw Min Tun.
There are only 12 shared toilets for the settlement, which is home to more than 600 people, he said.
Subsequent tests at two hospitals in Yangon found five other cholera cases.
One person, who had been living with Aids – or acquired immune deficiency syndrome – and was not tested for cholera, had died, the statement said.
The junta’s Health Ministry sent out a text message to mobile phone users warning them to take additional hygiene precautions.
Cholera is an infectious disease caused by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Typically causing severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps, it spreads easily in unsanitary conditions.
WHO says researchers estimate that there are 1.3 million to four million cases of cholera each year worldwide, with up to 143,000 people dying from the disease. AFP
