Disease

Typhoid, cholera alerts issued in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe health officials issued health alerts for two serious bacterial pathogens Friday in light of serious water shortages, according to a state media report.

Officials say the erratic water supply poses serious problems with water borne disease outbreaks. “The impact may not be serious now, but when it rains and there are flash floods, all this dirt will be washed away into shallow and unprotected water sources. This is when you see an increase in water-borne diseases such as typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea,” Health and Child Care Minister David Parirenyatwa said.

The capital city of Harare has already reported 60 cases of typhoid. The water problem has forced many to dig shallow wells and the use of “bush toilets”.

Syphilis up 33 percent in Brazil

In 2016, the government forecasts 41,762 new syphilis infections among pregnant women—49 times higher than that reported a decade ago. And those numbers might even be underselling the problem; Brazilian health authorities estimate half of all cases go unreported. The sexually transmitted infection is beginning to spread at epidemic rates thanks to a troubling rise in unprotected sex, and has been exacerbated by shortages of the one medication that can stop syphilis in its tracks.

Cholera in Yemen

At least nine people have died of cholera in Yemen's southern port city of Aden as the infectious disease continues to spread rapidly across the conflict-stricken Arab country. The sources said 190 people with severe diarrhoea had been admitted to hospitals in Aden. The WHO has warned that the scarcity of drinkable water had worsened the hygiene situation in Yemen, fuelling a marked increase in cases of severe diarrhoea, in particular among people displaced from their homes in the centre of the country.