Cholera spreads in Darfur camps

The state Ministry of Health placed medical tents to combat the spread of cholera in the overcrowded Kalma camp for displaced people in South Darfur.

Five people died of 'acute watery diarrhoea', as the deadly disease is called by the Sudanese authorities, in the Nyala Academic Hospital, the Ministry of Health reported on Monday. Minister Yagoub Ibrahim Eldamuki told reporters that the Academic Hospital received 50 suspected cases of acute diarrhoea; sixteen of them have been discharged from the hospital.

“90 per cent of the cases of acute watery diarrhoea come from Kalma camp,” Eldamuki said, pointing out that the camp for displaced people near the state capital is overcrowded with 163,000 people. The narrow areas make the environment in the camp suitable for the spread of the disease.

The ministry installed nine therapeutic tents in nine centres in Kalma, to provide people with medicines, medical assistants, chlorination tools and water sources, he said. “The health situation in the state is improving for the better, compared to previous days, as a result of the joint efforts between the ministry and the state community through awareness programmes and health education.”

Kabkabiya camps

Seven people died of cholera and seven others were infected at Sabag El Kheil and El Mawashi camps for displaced people in the Kabkabiya locality of North Darfur on Friday and Saturday.

A camp official told Radio Dabanga on Friday that El Mawashi witnessed four deaths by cholera, including two people at the local hospital. On Saturday seven people reported to the hospital with a suspected infection of cholera. Two of them died. In total, seven cholera cases are being held at the hospital.

North Kordofan cases

The rate of cholera infections has risen in the southern countryside of Tendelti in North Kordofan. On Sunday, an employee of a charity working to control the spread of the disease, said that the areas of Goz Khadra and Rigil Zaghawa seem to be the cause of the rising number of cases.

In the past few days the number of infections ranged from ten to fifteen cases, but rose to 24 cases on Monday, the source reported. This necessitated the opening of a new isolation centre at Karmel village, south of Tendelti.

Patients treated for cholera outside of Tendelti hospital in North Kordofan this week (RD)

The total number of isolation centres has risen to five in the Tendelti hospital and in Abu Rigba, Um Zureiba, Abu Anaj and Karmel villages. Treatment and antibiotics are available here, he told Radio Dabanga. “The Qatari charity organisation is the only group active in the five areas, distributing posters to raise awareness, tools for hygiene, disinfenctant soap and more.”

East Darfur

The situation of acute diarrhoea infections is “stable” in Shearia locality and Khazan Jadid in East Darfur, according to locality commissioner Dr Ahmed Yousif Ahmed. The disease has been contained, as the formed emergency committee that monitors patients in the area has followed-up orders to protect the people's health, he said.

Last week the Commissioner of Ed Daein in East Darfur ordered the evacuation of South Sudanese refugees from the town within 48 hours, to prevent the spread of cholera. The decrees followed reports about cases of cholera among Southern Sudanese refugees in the camps south of Ed Daein. The Kario refugee camp has been isolated.

El Gedaref

Relative stability prevailed in relation to the number of new cases of cholera in El Gedaref state. A source told Radio Dabanga that the number of cases at one of the isolation centres amounted to fifteen people, including five to six new cases which entered on Monday.

In western El Gallabat locality, infections were reported too: between one to three cases on Monday. In eastern El Gallabat there were five cases at El Saraf El Ahmar and three cases at El Rahad health centres. No deaths were reported.