The country is facing serious problems with ensuring safe and clean water. However, many Ethiopians and international pilgrims continue to drink holy water from pilgrimage sites like Bermel Giorgis because it is attributed to healing effects.
The Citizens of the United Kingdom and Germany, who drank holy water from the well in the pilgrimage site of Bermel Giorgis in Ethiopia, were infected with cholera. TASR reports on the NDTV television reports and the Eurosurveillance scientific journal.
Seven cases of cholera infection were captured by public health authorities in Germany and the United Kingdom from January to the end of February 2025. The investigation found a positive travel history in three infected persons, all three infected visited the pilgrimage site Bermel Giorgis. Four other people were infected in Europe by drinking holy water from the well from this pilgrimage site.
The Robert Kocha Institute (RKI) in Berlin and the British Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in London found the presence of the Vibrio Cholerae O1 tribe in infected persons. This stem of resistant -resistant bacteria has been associated with recent outbreaks of infection that appeared in Central Africa and the Middle East.
“Three people (in Britain) were hospitalized with signs of watery diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration, one person needed intensive care with fluid replenishment,” says Eurosurveillance, all four people have completely recovered.
Ethiopia is facing serious problems with ensuring safe and clean water for its population, and almost half of the 122 million population does not have it. However, many Ethiopians and international pilgrims continue to drink holy water from pilgrimage sites like Bermel Giorgis because it is attributed to healing effects.
Cholery epidemic last in Ethiopia broke out in 2022. Almost 60,000 people have become ill, 726 people succumbed to the disease, the University of Oxford said.
The source of cholera is usually contaminated food or water sources, NDTV reports. The disease spreads in residential areas without access to proper sewerage and pure drinking water distribution. Symptoms of disease such as watery diarrhea, fever, convulsive abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting may occur from 12 hours to five days. The disease causes dehydration, causing circulation failure in the body and death. In weakened individuals and children, death may occur within a few hours.
