Eight children have died while others have been admitted to various hospitals following a cholera outbreak in the Southern Somalia region of Middle Shabelle.
According to local residents, the children died after drinking contaminated water as the drought crisis deepens.
Residents are worried that the small villages could be just as vulnerable to the outbreak due to lack of sufficient medicines and hospitals in the area.
Cholera is a diseased caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. It is transmitted through water, and outbreaks result from conditions of poor sanitation affecting drinking water and water used to prepare food.
Symptoms include vomiting and extreme diarrhea which in turn causes rapid dehydration of the body, resulting in organ failure, the immediate cause of death.
HM
