Cholera kills 140 people in seven months in Cameroon

140 people in Cameroon have died of cholera since October 2021, the Prime Minister announced on Wednesday, adding that more than 7,000 cases have been reported since the resurgence of the disease.

"The updated epidemiological situation since October 2021 shows a total of 7,287 notified cases, including 140 deaths," wrote Joseph Dion Ngute in a statement.

As of March, 62 deaths with nearly 2,100 cases had been recorded.

According to the Prime Minister, new cases are mostly recorded in Littoral, whose capital is Douala, the economic capital, the West and the English-speaking Southwest.

A vaccination campaign is planned for early June in the country, the government announced.

The previous outbreak of cholera killed 66 people in Cameroon between January and August 2020.

In early 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that there were 1.3 to 4 million cases of cholera and 21,000 to 143,000 deaths from the disease worldwide each year.

"Safe oral cholera vaccines should be used in conjunction with an improved water supply and sanitation to limit cholera outbreaks and promote prevention in known high-risk areas," the UN agency said.