Thursday June 15, 2023
Cholera Treatment Center (CTC) at Moyale town (Picture: Boru Huka)
ADDIS ABABA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) disclosed that an ongoing cholera outbreak in Ethiopia has claimed 153 lives so far.
The UNOCHA said in its latest situation update issued late Wednesday that the cholera outbreak spreading in 85 districts in Ethiopia's Oromia, Southern, Somali and Sidama regions has affected more than 10,000 people.
The UN agency disclosed that the current cholera outbreak is among the longest outbreaks ever recorded in Ethiopia, with the first case recorded in August 2022.
The UNOCHA report also disclosed that limited resources, strained capacity, funding shortfall, and stressed global supply of cholera vaccines are preventing it from efficiently responding to the outbreak.
Data from the UN agency showed that more than 1.8 million people have so far been vaccinated in cholera-affected areas of Ethiopia. Last month, the UNOCHA warned that around 7 million Ethiopians are at risk of being infected by cholera.
The UNOCHA report also disclosed that only about 24 percent of the nearly 4-billion-U.S.-dollar total requirements of the 2023 Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan have so far been funded.