STORY: Cholera outbreak in eastern DR Congo threatening displaced persons: UN
DATELINE: Aug. 18, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:45
LOCATION: Kinshasa
CATEGORY: HEALTH
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of an internally displaced persons (IDP) site of Bulengo
2. SOUNDBITE (French): AMINA BAKUNDA, Doctor at the Cholera Treatment Center
3. various of a Red Cross worker talking to displaced people on cholera
 
STORYLINE:
 
A cholera outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) threatens more than 1 million displaced persons, many living precariously, UN humanitarians said on Monday.
 
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the outbreak is in North Kivu province, with areas of Goma, Karisimbi, Masisi and Nyiragongo particularly impacted.
 
"Health authorities have registered 1,800 confirmed and suspected cases between March 13-19 compared to some 1,000 cases the previous week," the humanitarian office said. Since the beginning of the year to last week, more than 6,200 cases had been registered.
 
OCHA said the area impacted hosts over 1 million displaced people with precarious living conditions in many temporary sites.
 
"We are concerned that people's limited access to water and inadequate hygiene conditions facilitates the spread of cholera," the office said. "We and our partners continue to support cholera treatment centers. However, resources are limited and the situation may deteriorate further without additional funding to scale up the response."

SOUNDBITE (French): AMINA BAKUNDA, Doctor at the Cholera Treatment Center
"My name is Amina Bakunda, I work here in the Cholera Treatment Center. I'm the focal point of the CTC service. What we do here first, we treat the suspected cholera cases. That's what we do here. When the patient arrives, we have a triage service and observation. We triage the patient and then observe for four to six hours. We see if it's confirmed, if it's a case of cholera. If it's not, we refer the patient to other departments, but if it's a case of cholera, we treat him. Since this service was set up, we have received 2,359 cases, of which 2,349 were cured and 10 have died. We used to have a lot of problems, but things have now stabilized. There were difficulties with displaced patients, who didn't want to come for the medical consultation."
 
Cholera is endemic in the DRC, including in north and south Kivu provinces, the World Health Organization said in its report on the country last month.
 
The significant number of displaced is the result of years of raids by armed rebel groups, particularly in eastern DRC's Ituri and north and south Kivu provinces.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kinshasa.
(XHTV)