UNICEF Asks West African Governments To Prepare For Cholera Season To Prevent Widespread Outbreak

UNICEF's West and Central Africa Regional Office "on Tuesday appealed to western African governments to prevent a new cholera outbreak, after the disease claimed nearly 3,000 lives there last year," Agence France-Presse reports. The "bureau said that 'at least 105,248 cases of cholera were registered in 17 countries in 2011, and 2,898 people died' in what was one of the most severe outbreaks of the disease in years," the news agency writes. Though the number of cases is close to zero in most countries now, "governments should be prepared 'to minimize risks for the next season which, in West and Central Africa, is projected to start in April 2012,'" the agency said, and noted it was concerned the disease could spread to the Sahel region, where people already are weakened by malnutrition, according to AFP (3/6).