Cholera outbreak in Afghanistan

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Several outbreaks of cholera have caused more than 150 deaths in at least three provinces of the war-ravaged Afghanistan during the past 5 weeks. As of Sept 25, hundreds of people have been affected in the Kandahar, Badghis, and Jawzjan provinces. More than half of the deaths have been in Badghis province. But still, "the severity of cholera is less than one-tenth of last year", Rana Graber, spokesperson for WHO Afghanistan, told The Lancet. The cause of the outbreaks was Vibrio cholera El Tor Ogawa 01.

Based on the severity of the cholera outbreaks during the past 2 years and the worsening drought situation, WHO had predicted an even worse cholera situation this year. "We were concerned that due to drought people would be more likely to use contaminated sources such as rivers for drinking water", said Graber.

But according to Riyad Musa Ahmad, also from WHO Afghanistan, because many families might have shifted their water source from backyard shallow wells (which have dried up) to the deeper, and thus cleaner, public wells, the number of cholera cases have been lower this year.

Source: Ahmad K. Policy and People, The Lancet 356 (9236), 30 September 2000.