ABUJA, Nigeria, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- More than 1,500 people have died of cholera in Nigeria since the beginning of the year, U.N. officials said Friday.
At least 40,000 people have contracted the disease, three times the number of reported cases in 2009 and seven times the number in 2007, the United Nations Children's Fund said. Officials described the epidemic as the worst to hit the country in years.
About 80 percent of those infected are women and children, the Red Cross reports.
While the fatality rate for the disease is about 4.5 percent in Nigeria, it is much higher, 10 percent of more, in areas that have been hit by floods. In one region, Plateau, about 20 percent of those with cholera have died.
The epidemic appears to have been contained, but new cases are still being reported, officials said.
Cholera is a bacterial infection usually contracted by consuming contaminated water or food. Epidemics, including the current one in Haiti, are often associated with flooding.
