Following last week's report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of a serious outbreak of cholera in neighbouring Guinea, the Government of Liberia has intensified its nation-wide anti-cholera vaccination campaign.

Health officials from 29 African countries are expected to discuss precautionary measures against cholera at the 20th session of the WHO regional committee for Africa, which opened on Wednesday (11 September) in Accra, Ghana, although the epidemic is not on the agenda.

The WHO has already started a series of crash courses for African doctors in West Africa in dealing with cholera, as one measure to stop the disease spreading from Guinea to its neighbouring states.

Two thousand cases with sixty deaths have been reported in Guinea. This is the first time the disease has spread south of the Sahara. The government of Guinea was reported to have denied the presence of cholera in the country, but last Tuesday a 55-year old Togolese travelling from Guinea died from cholera a few hours after being taken from an aircraft at Accra airport.

Teams representing Liberian national public health service, the WHO, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and missionary movements are carrying out the Liberian vaccination campaign.

At Bassa community in Monravia fighting broke out recently as hundreds of people queued to obtain their vaccine.

No cases of cholera have been reported in Liberia and more than 70,000 people have been vaccinated. The border between Liberia and Guinea has been sealed off for more than three weeks.