Lagos, Sep 23 (IANS): A cholera outbreak in Nigeria's Kano state has killed at least 329 people since March, a overnment official said.

Addressing a media forum on the cholera outbreak on Wednesday, the official said 11,475 suspected cholera cases were reported across the 44 local government areas of the state since March, reports Xinhua news agency.

He said out of the number, 11,115 cases had fully recovered, while 329 people had died, noting that 31 cases were still receiving treatment.

The officer said Kano ranked second in the country in terms of the number of cholera cases, adding the state government has established treatment centres and intensified social mobilisation and community awareness in the state as part of measures to check the disease.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhoea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

The outbreak of cholera in Nigeria has remained persistent, occurring annually mostly during the rainy season and more often in areas with poor sanitation, overcrowding, lack of clean food and water, and areas where open defecation is a common practice.