As cholera continues in Chad, cross-border movements and basic conditions aid the spread of the disease. At the end of August, a cholera outbreak hit Chad and close to 5000 cases have been registered so far. This outbreak comes on top of a severe nutrition crisis in the country. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are on the ground responding to this emergency situation.
Patients in a cholera treatent centre, Chad. October 2010. Photo by MSF
The first case in Chad was registered in the middle of August. Since then, close to 5000 patients suffering from cholera have been registered across the country. To respond to the outbreak, MSF teams have set up several cholera treatment centres (CTCs) in the Chadian regions of Lac, Mayo Kebbi West and Mayo Kebbi East, as well as in the capital city N’Djamena.
“The cholera outbreak is yet another crisis to hit this already weakened population”, said Dr. Kodjo Edoh, MSF head of mission in Chad. “For the whole year, the people in Chad have been facing one emergency after the other: first measles outbreaks, then a sharp increase in malnutrition up to emergency levels, followed by floods, malaria, and now cholera.”
In Pala, a town close to the border with Cameroon, the first patient was reported in early September. As of the end October, a total of 886 patients have been registered in the Pala health district, with an alarmingly high number of 199 patients in week 40. Now the peak has passed but the epidemic is not over.
“In one of the most affected communities in GoyGoudoum, about 34 kilometres from Pala town, this is the first outbreak in 20 years,” said Oscar Niragira, Medical Coordinator for MSF in Chad. “As the outbreak in neighbouring Cameroon is still active, the cross-border movements of people combined with poor living conditions, lack of access to clean water and poor awareness of the disease, are all factors contributing to the spread of the disease.”
In the treatment centre in GoyGoudoum, a rural village with poor living conditions and gold mining activities, MSF doctors and nurses together with staff from the Ministry of Health, provide patients with oral rehydration salts or, for the most severe cases, intravenous treatments.
“MSF is one of the few medical actors supporting the Ministry of Health in its response to the cholera outbreak and the ongoing nutrition crisis. The authorities are trying the best they can with what they have, but health structures are chronically under-supported and they need the assistance of more organisations to help them in the field”, said Dr. Edoh.
MSF has been working in Chad since 1981 and is currently responding to emergencies in 11 regions across the country, as well as to a cholera outbreak and malnutrition in the capital N'Djamena.