Sierra Leone and Guinea struggle to contain a cholera outbreak
The rainy season has come to the West African coast, and right alongside it, cholera. The bacteria is transmitted through contaminated water or food, most often in places with poor sanitation and water treatment. In severe cases, cholera causes a rapid loss of bodily fluids, leading to severe dehydration and possibly death in a matter of just a few hours. In West Africa, especially in over-crowded coastal slums, the poorest residents live without toilets, running water or proper drainage of waste water, making them more likely to contract this preventable and treatable illness.
The shore next to Mabella is littered with trash, and untreated sewage flows into the ocean, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Kanké, 10. Donka Cholera Treatment Center, operated by Mèdecins Sans Frontiéres and ICRC, in Conakry, Guinea.
Young people bathe at a sawmill drainage pipe in Mabella quarter, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Mariatu Kamara, center, peels potatoes for stew to sell in the market in Mabella quarter, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
A nurse uses the light of a cell phone while inserting an IV needle in 4-year-old Saidouba Sylla's arm at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea. Saidouba's father Fode Sylla said it took the family two and a half hours to travel to the treatment center, a delay which caused Saidouba to become extremely dehydrated from the effects of cholera.
Sia Yabom Bangura sits at the bed of her 5-year-old son Aliou Kamara at Wellington Cholera Treatment Center, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Children collect buckets of water next to an open sewer in Mabella quarter, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Aminata Mansaray, and her baby brother Abu Mansaray on their front porch in Mabella quarter, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
A nurse and Santigie Bundu prop up his severely dehydrated 7-year-old son Alusine Bundu so that he can drink oral rehydration solution at Macaulay Cholera Treatment Center, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Fish are gutted and prepared for smoking in unsanitary conditions at Bunfi Port in Conakry, Guinea.
Bountouraby Camara sings to her mother Fatmata Soumah at MSF's Koloma Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea.
