Cholera kills 65 more Somali children
A paramedic attends to internally displaced children suffering from cholera inside a ward at Banadir hospital in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on August 18, 2011. (file photo)
Cholera has killed 65 more children in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where cases of waterborne diseases have increased due to unhygienic living conditions, Press TV reported.
Doctor Sakariye Mohamed told Press TV that the victims died on Thursday morning in Mogadishu's southern neighborhood of Hodan.
He added that more than 160 other children, suffering from cholera and waterborne diseases, were also taken to Banadir and Digfeer hospitals in southern Mogadishu to get some medication.
A combination of poor sanitation conditions, scarcity of safe and clean drinking water, and overcrowding has led to the spread of waterborne diseases in Mogadishu.
According to the World Health Organization, some 75 percent of all cases of highly infectious diarrhea are among children under the age of five.
Cholera is confirmed in Banadir, Bay, Mudug and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, and the number of acute diarrhea cases has increased dramatically in the last few months.
Reports say that aid agencies can take food supplies to only a limited number of people affected by the disaster since insecurity hinders efforts in much of the country's south.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of its former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
MP/JR
