The cholera epidemic sweeping through West Africa will worsen due to heavy rainfall, UN agencies said Wednesday, urging governments in the region to quickly seek international help. According to dpa, some 55,300 cases and more than 1,100 deaths have been reported so far this year, as unusually severe rains have flooded shanty towns, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement from Geneva. The number of cases in West and Central Africa this year have jumped 34 per cent from 2011 and are expected to rise even more in the current wet season, the agencies predicted. Infections have been spreading along the Mano River in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as in areas of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
