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NIGERIA: Cholera kills 20 in northern state

LAGOS, 7 August (IRIN) - At least 20 people have died from cholera in Kebbi State, northern Nigeria, state radio said on Tuesday. Radio Nigeria reported Kebbi's health commissioner, Ibrahim Mai'ahu, as saying that more than 150 inhabitants of Gulma District in the northeast of the state had been affected by the disease.

Mai'ahu said the government had taken steps to curb the spread of the disease and that medical teams had already been sent to the affected areas with an adequate supply of drugs. He said the outbreak occurred because people depended on unsafe drinking water from sources such as rivers and ponds that were often contaminated with faecal matter.

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