• Simon Akam / Reuters

    A child stands in pouring rain in the slum of Susan's Bay in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, Aug. 22. At the height of the wet season, over-populated areas with poor water and sanitation are exacerbating the spread of the disease.

    Cholera infects 13,000 in Sierra Leone, national emergency declared

    Sierra Leone's government has described the current cholera outbreak in the West African state of Sierra Leone as a "national emergency." According to Associated Press, more than 258 have been killed and some 13,000 more are infected by the disease.

    "All of this is the aftermath of the 11 years rebel war when we had a huge rural-to-urban migration and a huge population clustered in the urban area where adequate provision has not been made for water and sanitation. This is what we have been witnessing today," Minister of Health and Sanitation Zainab Hawa Bangura. Continue reading AP article.

    Cholera is an infection of the small intestine, contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or liquids. It can cause acute diarrhea and vomiting and can kill within hours.

  • Mystery illness sweeping Pacific coast of Central America

    Esteban Felix / AP

    Segundo Zapata Palacios' daughter hugs his body as his children mourn for him inside their home in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 26. Zapata, who worked as a sugar cane cutter for 20 years at the San Antonio sugar plantation, died of chronic kidney disease on Jan. 26 at age 49. From left to right are his children Laura Maria, Ababell Paola, and Hector Danilo. A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Many of the victims were manual laborers or worked in the sugarcane fields that cover much of the coastal lowlands.

    Estbean Felix / AP

    Emma Vanegas, wife of Segundo Zapata Palacios, shows photographs of banana trees in their garden which they claim show damage from agricultural chemicals sprayed over the San Antonio sugar mill, located next to their home, in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, on Jan. 20.

     

    Jesus Ignacio Flores started working when he was 16, laboring long hours on construction sites and in the fields of his country's biggest sugar plantation.

    Three years ago his kidneys started to fail and flooded his body with toxins. He became too weak to work, wracked by cramps, headaches and vomiting.

    On Jan. 19 he died on the porch of his house. He was 51. His withered body was dressed by his weeping wife, embraced a final time, then carried in the bed of a pickup truck to a grave on the edge of Chichigalpa, a town in Nicaragua's sugar-growing heartland, where studies have found more than one in four men showing symptoms of chronic kidney disease.

    -- Reported by the Associated Press

    Estbean Felix / AP

    Left: A sugar cane cutter smokes a cigarrette as he rests from cutting cane in the fields, Jan. 20. Center: Sugar cane cutters work as smoke from burning cane rises behind them in the fields of the San Antonio sugar plantation in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 27. Right: A sugar cane cutter drinks an electrolyte solution supplied by his employer at the San Antonio sugar mill in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 20.

    Estbean Felix / AP

    In this Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 photo, former sugar cane cutters Juan Cruz, 50, right, and his brother Hilario Perez Cruz, 30, pose for a portrait in their home in Trohilo, Leon, Nicaragua. Both Juan and Hilario suffer chronic kidney disease and can no longer get hired by the sugar mill due to their illness.

    Estbean Felix / AP

    Ernestina Aleman, right, watches over her son Jesus Ignasio Flores, who suffers chronic kidney disease, as he rests in his bed in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 4. Flores, 51, who died of chronic kidney disease on Jan. 19, worked as an irrigator and construction worker for 23 years at the San Antonio sugar plantation and mill.

    Estbean Felix / AP

    Emma Vanegas bathes her husband Segundo Zapata Palacios, who suffers chronic kidney disease, inside their home in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 18.

    Estbean Felix / AP

    Segundo Zapata Palacios rests in a hospital as his wife Emma Vanegas sits at his bedside in Chinandega, Nicaragua, Jan. 24. Zapata, who worked as a sugar cane cutter for 20 years at the San Antonio sugar plantation, died two days later of chronic kidney disease.

    Esteban Felix / AP

    The body of Segundo Zapata Palacios is driven to the cemetery during his funeral procession past the sugar cane fields where he worded in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, Jan. 27.

    Esteban Felix / AP

    In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Wilson de Jesus Zapata is embraced by his wife at the tomb of his father Segundo Zapata Palacios after his burial at the cemetery in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua.

     

  • Hemorrhagic fever claims 3 lives in western India

    By Mish Whalen

    According to the Associated Press: An Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever has killed three people in western India and dozens of doctors will screen a community of about 16,000 people in efforts to contain the disease, a state health minister said Wednesday. See more on this story, here. 

    Ajit Solanki / AP

    An Indian health worker pours a disinfectant on a buffalo at Kolat village near Ahmadabad, India, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011.

    Ajit Solanki / AP

    Indian health workers collect samples of ticks from a buffalo at Kolat village near Ahmadabad, India, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011.

    Ajit Solanki / AP

    Indian school children cover their faces as they walk through Kolat village near Ahmadabad, India, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011.

  • Water use in Haiti shows potential for disease transmission

    By John Brecher

    Photographers in Haiti have documented some of the water use practices that can spread disease. You can see more about the cholera outbreak in our slideshow. 

    EDUARDO MUNOZ / Reuters

    A Haitian child throws human waste in a street at downtown Port-au-Prince November 20, 2010. The United Nations-led international response to Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic is "inadequate" and woefully short of funding, aid groups, including the U.N. humanitarian agency, said on Friday.

    KENA BETANCUR / Reuters

    A man recovers an onion from the ground in downtown Port-au-Prince November 22, 2010. Aid supplies to combat Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic are flowing again into the country's northern regions after protests by Haitians blaming U.N. troops for the outbreak, humanitarian groups said on Sunday.

    KENA BETANCUR / Reuters

    A woman collects water from the ground to clean a table to sell meat in downtown Port-au-Prince November 22, 2010. Aid supplies to combat Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic are flowing again into the country's northern regions after protests by Haitians blaming U.N. troops for the outbreak, humanitarian groups said on Sunday.

    KENA BETANCUR / Reuters

    A girl drinks water from a well next to a refuse-clogged canal in downtown Port-au-Prince November 22, 2010. Aid supplies to combat Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic are flowing again into the country's northern regions after protests by Haitians blaming U.N. troops for the outbreak, humanitarian groups said on Sunday.

    EDUARDO MUNOZ / Reuters

    Haitians buy and sell groceries and meat beside disposed waste at a local market downtown Port-au-Prince November 21, 2010. The United Nations-led international response to Haiti's deadly cholera epidemic is "inadequate" and woefully short of funding, aid groups, including the U.N. humanitarian agency, said on Friday.

     

    Ramon Espinosa / AP

    A man bathes in a canal filled with garbage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday Nov. 22, 2010. Thousands of people have been hospitalized for cholera across Haiti with symptoms including serious diarrhea, vomiting and fever and at least 1,100 people have died.

     

     

  • Haiti's cholera outbreak sparks violent protests

    Remi Ochlik / Polaris

    Haitians hold anti-U.N. protests in Cap-Haitien, yelling anti-U.N. slogans, hurling stones at U.N. peacekeepers and setting up burning barricades. The protesters are accusing Nepalese of bringing cholera to Haiti.

     

    Hector Retamal / AFP - Getty Images

    A woman lies on the pavement near the General Hospital where people infected by cholera are being treated, Nov. 16, 2010, in Port-au-Prince.

    AP’s Jonathan M. Katz reports:

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — An outbreak of cholera has killed more than 1,000 people, the Haitian government said Tuesday as it sent top officials to the country's north in hopes of quelling violent protests against U.N. peacekeepers accused of spreading the disease.

    Read the full story: Haiti's cholera death toll grows, fueling riots

     

    Frustration over the slow response to Haiti's cholera outbreak erupted into violence for a second day on Tuesday. NBC's Brian Williams reports.