Sahel region experiencing increase in cholera cases, UNICEF, WHO warn

UNICEF and the WHO "are warning of an alarming upsurge in cholera across West Africa's Sahel region, the area at the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert running from Mauritania to Chad," VOA News reports (Schlein, 7/10). "So far in 2012, cholera has killed nearly 700 people in West and Central Africa and more than 29,000 cases were reported," according to a UNICEF press release (7/10). "Both UNICEF and WHO say they are critically short of funds to do what is needed to contain the outbreak," but "[t]hey say action must be taken now before the number of cholera cases explodes," VOA writes (7/10). IRIN examines efforts to curb the spread of cholera in Guinea, with the administration of a vaccine, and in Sierra Leone (7/10).