The spread of cholera in Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik Province has reached a critical stage, according to health officials.

Already, there have been 5-deaths in the province due to the disease, while a further 90 have caught the infection.

Kambaramba village, the Biwat area, Angoram town and the Gavien Resettlement area are some of the areas to be affected the worst, and since people from these areas frequently travelled to the Madang province via the Sepik River, they probably contracted the disease there.

After the disease was detected in Morobe earlier on, a cholera outbreak was declared in Madang four weeks ago, with the number of people suspected of being infected rising to 400, with 10-confirmed cases.  Samson Torovi, Provincial Health Administrator for East Sepik calling the situation critical says, since cholera is a water-borne disease and people depend on the surrounding rivers and lakes for their water needs.

The health authorities are developing strategies, whose main objective is to contain the disease from spreading out of the infected and affected areas, including upgrading the function of the taskforce into areas of preventive, curative, surveillance and establishment of care centres.

Some deaths in Eastern Highlands and Gulf provinces have been linked to the disease, however, the deaths have not been confirmed.