LAGOS, Sept. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Cholera has killed more than 720 people across west Africa in recent outbreak, while the incidence has almost reached 45,000 cases, according to a statement issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

    "Seasonal factors, with a particularly heavy rainy season, along with increased population movements in the area contribute to this unusually high incidence of cholera," said the statement obtained here Saturday

    The total number of the waterborne disease, which can kill within 24 hours by inducing severe vomiting and diarrhea, now rosesharply to 43,638 cases while the death toll was more than 724, the WHO statement said.

    The UN health agency said as international and national health partners were providing technical support to the ministries of health in the affected countries, supplies for case management and chlorination of water had also been dispatched to some of them.

    The worst hit countries by the cholera epidemic are Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Enditem