DRC: Cholera hitting more areas

06 November 2008

© Dominic Nahr / L'Oeil Public

MSF teams are continuing their work in Goma and in other towns and villages in North Kivu. The organization remains very concerned about the many people still on the move after fleeing recent fighting.

Some displaced people are returning to their places of origin around North Kivu. Yet many of the displaced and local residents continue to be in urgent need of food, clean water, healthcare and basic items like blankets and shelter materials.

Yesterday there was heavy fighting in Rutshuru, and the situation there remains tense. MSF surgical teams are treating war wounded at the hospital. A cholera treatment unit was opened in Rutshuru hospital.

In and around Goma, teams are evaluating medical and sanitation conditions. The organization is closely monitoring cholera cases and treating patients in cholera treatment centres. Today a team went to a school in Goma to treat 12 cholera patients there.

MSF continues to send mobile clinics and water trucks to Kibati, just north of Goma, and is now planning to set up a cholera treatment center there. Today the mobile clinic team continued north to Rugari to check on the health centre there.

About 30 km west of Goma, MSF teams are looking at providing support to the hospital in Kirotshe, and to the IDP camp in Shasha.

Kitchanga and Mweso are relatively calm. MSF is providing primary and secondary healthcare and running mobile clinics. The number of cholera cases reported in Kitchanga has actually declined slightly in recent days.

Teams are treating patients at the hospitals in Masisi. Mobile clinics in the Kanyabayonga area have performed over 200 consultations in recent days.

MSF is continuing to explore the area, as security conditions permit, identifying people with unmet health needs following recent fighting and displacement.