Six test positive for cholera in Myanmar commercial hub – junta

FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

YANGON — Six people in Myanmar’s biggest city have tested positive for cholera, a junta spokesman said on Saturday, adding it had ordered the temporary closure of restaurants in the area.

Nine people living in a “squatter ward” in the commercial hub of Yangon were hospitalized for severe diarrhea and one later tested positive for cholera, according to spokesman Zaw Min Tun.

There were only 12 shared toilets for the settlement home to more than 600 people, he said.

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Subsequent tests at two hospitals in Yangon found five other cholera cases.

One person, who had been living with AIDS and was not tested for cholera, had died, the statement said.

The junta’s health ministry sent out a text message to mobile phone users warning them to take additional hygiene precautions.

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Cholera is an infectious disease caused by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the bacterium, according to the World Health Organization.

Typically causing severe diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps, it spreads easily in unsanitary conditions.

WHO says researchers estimate that are 1.3 million to four million cases of cholera each year worldwide, with up to 143,000 people dying from the disease.