China province hit by cholera outbreak
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A cholera outbreak in a rich eastern Chinese province has sickened 158 people though there have been no deaths reported, state media said.
The waterborne disease, which can quickly cause severe dehydration and death and is connected with unsanitary cooking methods, broke out in the city of Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, close to China’s commercial capital of Shanghai.
The outbreak has already been “brought under control”, the official Xinhua news agency said in an overnight report seen on Monday. The city has one of the highest incidences of intestinal illnesses in the province, Xinhua said, though it did not give a reason. After sweeping to power in 1949, the Communist Party trumpeted their success in eradicating epidemics from smallpox to plague and cholera that killed millions in preceding decades.
But market reforms in the past 25 years have left the health care system in need of life support, and the country has been hit by outbreaks of diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome in recent years that have sicked thousands and killed hundreds.
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