Nigeria Reports Cholera Outbreak

Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control recently stated that at least 71 people have died as a result of a cholera outbreak in the state of Kano.

"The first cases reported on 6th November 6, 2013 with 22 local government affected, 344 wards were affected while 713 settlement ravaged by the diseases and a total number of 71 deaths recorded from 17 local government area which represented 3.3 percent case fatality rate," Abdulsalam Nasidi, project director of Nigeria's Center for Disease Control sated, via ThisDayLive.com.

According to Nasidi, more than 2,000 cases have been reported in the affected areas just within the last 60 days, with the majority of the outbreaks taking place in metropolitan areas.

"Cholera epidemic has been in the country since September last year , though at the initial stage Kano was not affected , this can best be attributed to the effort of the government in informing the general public on the need to take adequate care of their health as well as necessary logistic provided by the government", said State commissioner of Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, according to the news organization.

The CDC notes that cholera is caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholera. Though rare in the United States and other industrialized nations, the health issue continues to be a problem in parts of Southeast Asia, Africa and Haiti, as of 2005. Often times, it may result from lack of clean water.

At this time, it's estimated that half of Nigeria's population-more than 160 million-have no access to safe water. A third of the population also are without access to safe toilets.