Sudan is facing outbreaks of cholera and dengue, with the World Health Organization confirming this Tuesday 10 deaths in 80 cases of cholera in Gadarife province, which also records the majority of the more than 500 suspected cases of dengue.
The warning had already been issued on Monday by local doctors, who stated that the outbreak is spreading “at an alarming rate”, causing “hundreds of deaths”, and that the outbreak must be contained.
The United Nations health agency has renovated the cholera isolation center at Gadarife University Hospital, the province’s main medical facility in eastern Sudan, to combat the outbreak of cholera, a bacterial infection linked to contaminated food or water and which continues to spread. has set up two cholera treatment centers and two mobile teams in the same region.
Outbreaks of dengue fever – caused by the dengue virus transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes – have also been recorded in eastern Sudan, where thousands of people are sheltering due to deadly fighting between the country’s armed forces and a rival paramilitary force . to the United Nations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that more than 500 suspected cases of dengue fever have been recorded across Sudan, with the majority in urban centers in Gadarife.
“The recorded number is the tip of the iceberg as the actual number is much higher as the majority of patients resort to home remedies and often do not go to hospitals”contextualized the WHO.
Sudan’s doctors’ union said “hundreds” of dengue patients have died in the country’s east, describing the outbreak as “a health crisis”, adding that most hospitals in Gadarife are overloaded with patients.
The conflict in Sudan has turned Khartoum, the capital and other urban areas into battlefields, devastating civilian infrastructure and an already very weak healthcare system. Without basic services, many hospitals and medical facilities closed their doors.
The United Nations refugee agency said last week that more than 1,200 children under the age of five have died in nine camps in Sudan in the past five months due to a deadly combination of measles and malnutrition.
Cholera killed at least 700 and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months in 2017, marking the country’s last major outbreak to date.
Source: DN
