Bad Weather Conditions in Southern Africa Trigger Cholera Outbreak

In southern Africa, poor weather across the continent has led to an epidemic of cholera. Outbreaks have spread to both rural populations and urban centres in major southern African cities.

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In Zambia, Children step over them and play inches from the fetid water. The African country has been experiencing cholera outbreaks since January when a one-year-old boy died from complications from the disease.

Malawi also have experienced their worst outbreaks in recent months, while Zimbabwe has had multiple waves. Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have also been badly affected.

In Zimbabwe, a drought worsened by El Nino has seen cholera take hold in distant rural areas as well as its traditional hotspots of crowded urban neighbourhoods.

Days after the deadly flooding in Kenya and other parts of East Africa this month, cholera cases appeared.

All of them have experienced floods or drought - in some cases, both - and health authorities, scientists and aid agencies say the unprecedented surge of the water-borne bacterial infection in Africa is the newest example of how weather partly drives disease outbreaks.

Some countries have seen cases rise as they wrestle with severe droughts and people rely on less safe water sources in their desperation.