Cholera kills 356 in Cameroon

YAOUNDE, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A cholera outbreak which started in northern Cameroon in May has killed 356 people out of more than 5,500 confirmed cases in the country, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.

The Far North Region reported more than 100 new cases in the last four days, but no deaths from the disease were reported in the North Region in the last three days, the ministry said.

The Cameroonian government has allocated around 64 million U.S. dollars to constrain the country's severest cholera outbreak in the last 20 years.

The health ministry issued an alert Tuesday for the capital of Yaounde, after a passenger infected with cholera was found on a train bound for the central-south city.

The patient has left the train to receive treatment before reaching Yaounde. Authorities have adopted measures to prevent the outbreak from spreading to the capital.

The epidemic in northern Cameroon could get worse in a region where infrastructure and sanitary conditions are extremely undeveloped, and less than 30 percent of residents have access to clean drinking water.

During the rainy season, water contamination and the deterioration of sanitary conditions may facilitate the spread of cholera and increase the death toll, authorities warned.

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