Cholera epidemic kills 16 people in Afghanistan
A cholera epidemic ravaging northern Afghanistan killed another 16 people overnight, many of them children.
The death toll from the cholera epidemic so far this week is 139.
The remote Agkupruk district in northern Balkh province is in the grip of a severe cholera epidemic, a spokesman for the opposition alliance said.
Afghanistan, devastated by more than two-decades of civil war and a punishing drought, experiences outbreaks of cholera every year, especially during the summer because of poor sanitation and lack of clean drinking water.
An opposition spokesman said: "We can do very little to help the cholera victims. There are no clinics and doctors in Agkupruk, nor can the poor people afford to buy medicines on their own."
A single dose of medicine costs 250,000 Afghanis (£2.10), an enormous amount in a country where the average monthly income is barely 800,000 Afghanis (£6.30).
The World Health Organisation and several other international aid agencies provide most of the medical facilities to impoverished Afghans.
A WHO official said: "We have rushed teams and medicines to the area and we are trying to verify the number of deaths."
