MSF has just launched an emergency programme in Guinea Bissau to counter a severe cholera outbreak. The first cases were reported in May, but the epidemic has soared in August. Over 6,000 people have already been infected and nearly 120 have died. Roughly 70 new patients are admitted daily to the treatment centre opened in Bissau town. The capital is most affected, but cases have been reported all over the country.
“Several factors can explain this rapid spread”, says Daniel Remartínez, coordinator of the MSF teams. “Rites at burials, where relatives drink water used to clean the corpses, have increased transmission as well as the lack of basic hygienic measures. This lack of hygiene turns health centres into sources of infection. Additionally, 80% of the population of Bissau do not have clean drinking water and depend on very basic wells that may be infected by nearby latrines”.
MSF supports the Cholera Treatment Centre that has been opened in Bissau and another 17 rehydration centres in the country. The teams have focused on supporting local health authorities in where capacity was inadequate. They have helped set up treatment centres, supplied medicines and material and participated in implementation and supervision of hygiene and infection control measures. The organisation has also organised mobile teams in charge of implementing water and sanitation measures, disinfecting patients´ houses and actively searching for new cases in order to prevent the disease from spreading further.
Despite the fact that cholera is endemic in the country (MSF previously responded to an epidemic in 2005), the country lacks response capacity to fight the disease. “The water distribution system has not undergone any improvement in the past few years. We can see that the centres where we intervened in 2005 are better prepared, but globally local response capacity is still poor”, adds Remartínez.
Although enormous efforts have been made by the authorities to inform people about the disease, means to stop it are not available. “People know what cholera is and we can see that medical staff has already managed cases, yet stemming the epidemic is still difficult because the hygiene measures needed are non-existent”, concludes the MSF coordinator.