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- WORLD, Page 61World NotesPERULife in the Time Of Cholera
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- Already afflicted by economic ills and a festering guerrilla
- insurgency, Peru is now plagued by an epidemic of cholera
- sweeping along its Pacific coast. As of last week, the disease
- had claimed 90 lives and infected at least 14,000 people. It
- is the first major outbreak of cholera in the western
- hemisphere since early in this century.
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- Local authorities have moved quickly to stem the epidemic,
- which is spread by poor hygiene and contaminated water, raw
- food and fish. Street-side food vending in Lima has been
- banned, and a national media campaign is under way to encourage
- sanitary habits. In an effort to prevent the disease from
- spreading to their neighboring countries, health officials in
- Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile have prohibited the importation of
- uncooked Peruvian food products. Soccer matches in Lima between
- Peruvian teams and squads from Argentina and Uruguay have also
- been canceled. While the exact source of the outbreak remains
- unclear, tests of coastal waters have shown a high degree of
- contamination. Some reports speculate that the cholera arrived
- on a ship from Southeast Asia.
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