UN reports 9 dead from Cholera in South Sudan

At least nine people have died in a cholera outbreak in South Sudan, many others are sick, and the epidemic is expected to worsen, the U.N. health agency warned Monday. “There have been nine deaths in 138 cases so far,” World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Geneva. “The epidemic is intensifying, and more cases are expected.” The WHO and other aid organizations were rushing supplies to the affected region in and around the capital, Juba, Jasarevic said. Children are at particularly risk from cholera. “The severity of the cholera outbreak is just one manifestation of a country failing its children,” said Jonathan Veitch, the South Sudan coordinator for the U.N. Children’s Agency (UNICEF). The outbreak of the highly contagious disease threatens an even broader spread, because 1.3 million South Sudanese have been forced from their homes by five months of violence. Huge numbers of people across the country are surviving without proper shelter, clean water, or toilets.