- Health experts fear the coming rainy season will reignite the cholera outbreak that has already claimed 2,214 lives since February this year.
Angola's infrastructure - including its health system - was ruined during a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002, and although there have been some efforts to improve living conditions the country still has one of the world's highest child mortality rates, with one in four children dying before the age of five.
The causes underpinning the cholera epidemic, such as the treatment of sewerage and drinking water, have yet to be addressed. Observers say the recent spike in the oil price has created a booming economy in the continent's second largest oil exporter, but this dividend has not been reflected in health infrastructure spending.
Cholera is a waterborne intestinal infection that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to rapid dehydration. If left untreated it can bring death within 24 hours. The World Health Organisation says cholera "is an easily treatable disease. The prompt administration of oral rehydration salts to replace lost fluids nearly always results in cure."
Deputy health minister Jose Van Dunem dismissed criticisms that the MPLA government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was not using the billions of dollars in annual oil revenues to improve infrastructure as unrealistic and unappreciative of the legacy of the civil war.
"We will need time to resolve our basic problems. You can't provide potable water for everyone overnight in a country where you had a war for 30 years. In Luanda [the capital], there is a lot more potable water being distributed than before the outbreak [but] we still haven't resolved the situation of sanitation and water," he said.
Nongovernmental organisation (NGO) workers argue that the government lacks a sense of urgency about the disease and is downplaying its seriousness.
"Previous outbreaks of cholera in Angola were 10 percent the size of this one - it's huge," said Erna Van Goor, general coordinator in Luanda of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF)-Holland, the international medical charity, which has been supporting government efforts to fight cholera. "And unfortunately, it's not over. It's true there is more water being distributed than before, but the water and sanitation situation is horrific."
The government has put the number of people affected so far by cholera at 54,549, but Van Goor said the real figures were undoubtedly higher. "[The northern province of] Lunda Norte is not included [in official statistics]. The ministry of health says it can't get the data from there because it doesn't have the proper infrastructure in its local structures. We have also heard some reports that in Bengo Province [adjacent to Luanda], there is underreporting going on," she said.
"The government has lots of good plans, but the timing of these is not timely enough. For example, they are going to build a lot of water points in Luanda to be ready in December, but that's too late."
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