Cholera hits Manila

Cholera hits Manila

MANILA (Reuter): A cholera outbreak has killed two people in Manila and 150 people, mostly children, have come down with the disease, Philippine health officials said yesterday.

The Department of Health said a four-year-old girl and a boy of the same age died earlier this week, and that 150 people had been treated in hospital from Sept. 1 to 6 for accute diarrhea and abdominal pains. Stool tests carried out on a selection of the patients tested positive for the cholera organism.

"The number of culture-positive stool samples would already confirm our diagnosis -- that there is an outbreak of cholera now," Health secretary Carmencita Reodica told reporters.