A cholera outbreak in flood-stricken Madagascar has infected more than 1,700 people and killed at least 100 of them in the last week, officials said Saturday.
The flooding has worsened a yearlong epidemic that has claimed 1,425 lives, said Armand Ralaidovy, the Health Ministry’s cholera-fighting coordinator. More than 25,000 people have contracted the waterborne bacterial infection.
Most are in the southwest of the African island nation, where heavy rains have inundated many areas and traditional burial rites are spreading the disease.
“People are keeping dead bodies in carts near their homes for two or three months before burying them. They are touching them. This is a cultural problem,” he said.
The number of cholera victims could be even higher: Many cases were hidden from authorities because families do not want bodies treated and promptly buried, Ralaidovy said. That would conflict with their traditions.
