Cholera outbreak kills 6 in Cameroon

Six people have died in Cameroon from a cholera outbreak that has infected 43 people since May, the health ministry said.

"Cases of cholera were documented since May 2018 in four districts in northern regions," health minister Andre Mama Fouda said in a statement sent late Saturday.

He said one case of the disease had been found in the capital Yaounde. "From the moment the first cases were documented in the northern region, every measure was taken to contain the epidemic," Fouda said.

Cholera is caused by a bacterium transmitted through contaminated food or drinking water. It causes acute diarrhoea, with children particularly at risk. In 2010, an outbreak of the disease killed more than 750 people across Cameroon.