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Room Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea
Border August 20, 2012 Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett The onset of
the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in
cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone
and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to
hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since
February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors
Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has
more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is
opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration
points in collaboration with local authorities. Cholera, which
spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary
conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach
cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a
punishing affliction. "I want to die," whispers a patient in
MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum