Cholera attacks former Soviet Union

More than 35 people have died and over 1000 fallen ill because of a cholera epidemic that has swept across the republics of the former Soviet Union this summer. The disease is now reported to be heading south through the Ukraine towards the Crimean peninsula.

The outbreak was first monitored in June in Daghestan, an isolated and backward rural region in Russia's part of the Caucasus mountains. Twenty five people died, more than 1000 fell sick, and another 1000 were identified as carriers before the outbreak could be brought under control. The disease was reportedly brought there by a group of Muslim pilgrims returning home overland from Saudi Arabia through Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan.

More alarming is the current …