November 1, 2011
Snapshot

DRC 2011 © Robin Meldrum/MSF

 

A girl selling food along the Congo River in Mbandaka, in Democratic Republic of Congo, listened this summer as an MSF health promoter explained that a cholera epidemic had been spreading along the river and had caused outbreaks in many of the towns on its banks. He explained how to avoid getting cholera, the symptoms to watch for, and what to do if one contracts it.

DRC’s summer cholera epidemic killed hundreds of people and spread to the capital, Kinshasa. MSF emergency medical teams established a cholera treatment center in Mbandaka that was receiving around 20 new patients every day. DRC is also dealing with a massive and deadly outbreak of measles, for which MSF sought and recently received permission to launch a widespread vaccination campaign in Katanga. 

© 2013 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)