UK launches anti-cholera campaign

The UK government has activated a £2 million emergency plan to help tackle a cholera epidemic sweeping through Sierra Leone.

The Department for International Development (DfID) says it is using a network that includes private businesses and specialist aid organisations to deliver emergency medical, water and sanitation assistance to affected people in the west African state.

So far around 200 people have died and more than 12,000 have been infected by the water-borne disease, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and can kill within hours if left untreated.

It is the first time the UK has used the network, called the Rapid Response Facility, since it was established in March.

Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Concern, Care International and the British Red Cross have been mobilised as part of the emergency response.

The DfID plans to help provide clean water and sanitation to nearly two million people as well as direct treatment for to up to 4,500 people affected by the disease.

Anti-cholera drugs and water purification kits will also be shipped to Sierra Leone.

DfID Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "The cholera epidemic in Sierra Leone is fast becoming a crisis, with millions potentially at risk.

"The UK is - for the first time - activating the Rapid Response Facility, its network of private sector and aid experts to make sure we get aid to where it is needed, fast.

"Not only will our response be rapid, it will be efficient.

"We will monitor closely to make sure every penny of British aid achieves results and supports those in dire need.

"Urgent action is required to halt the spread of disease and save lives - Britain is leading the way."

The department's private sector partners will supply the majority of the aid organisations' relief supplies and logistics in the coming days.

Cholera has spread quickly across West Africa, getting significantly worse in the last few weeks, with almost half those infected in Sierra Leone - the worst epidemic in the country for two decades.

The outbreak has been most severe in the capital, Freetown, which has a dangerous mix of poor sanitation, high population density and limited health services.

PA