Cholera has killed 419 people in Angola so far this year according to a new health ministry bulletin, but this is a sharp reduction from 2006, when 2,772 people succumbed to the waterborne disease.

Dr Marodon Frederique, the World Health Organisation (WHO) coordinator of Angola's cholera programme, told IRIN, "It is a big improvement [on last year], but it is not enough; we still have a problem."

So far, 16,320 cases have been reported in 16 of the country's 18 provinces, against more than 67,000 cases in 2006, with the majority of fatalities (77) this year occurring in the capital, Luanda, and the provinces of Kwanza Sul (102), Benguela (73), Malanje (46) and Cabinda (28), Frederique said.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by contaminated water or food, with an incubation period varying from few hours to as much as five days. The disease causes watery diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to severe dehydration; if left untreated it can often result in death.

"In the last week only 11 cases have been reported for all Angola," Frederique said, although prevalence usually declined at this time of year because July, August and September were the dry season.

Cholera is easily treatable and tends to flourish in urban and peri-urban areas where residents do not have access to potable water and sanitation infrastructure.

The government of the oil- and diamond-rich country has a long term-plan to provide reticulated water to most of the capital's residents by 2020, but rapid urbanisation could put pressure on this plan, Frederique commented.

The government, the WHO and the United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) have been deploying water bowsers and distributing chlorine tablets to areas at risk of cholera in a bid to control the disease.

According to WHO, Angola accounted for nearly half the 6,303 cholera deaths in Africa last year; Sudan recorded 1,011 fatalities, Ethiopia registered 575 and the Democratic Republic of Congo listed 426.