The number fluctuates as refugees continue to arrive from Zaire and others are transferred from the holding centres to the camps. Incidence of bloody diarrhoea is 2 to 3 per thousand per day. MSF has set up an emergency treatment area in one of the holding centres for oral and IV rehydration and strict hygienic control of the cholera patients. Nyarugusu Camp, which is receiving most of the refugees transferred out of the holding centres, is also ready to treat patients with cholera. Ujiji Hospital, which has a special diarrhoea ward, is being upgraded by MSF logistics.
Wards are being rebuilt, electricity is brought in, extra latrines are under construction.
Forty extra beds, in addition to the existing 10, will be made available this week. Vibrio cholerae cultures obtained from both refugees and locals have been sent to the Tanzanian Reference Laboratory for confirmation, grouping and sensitivity testing. Supplies have also been ordered to allow the local laboratory technician to work on identification and sensitivity testing of cholera strains, as well as shigella strains, should a shigella outbreak occurs. A WHO epidemiologist from the Global Cholera Task Force is joining the international team in Kigoma today.