Cholera still increasing in Darfur

On Wednesday Kabkabiya hospital in North Darfur recorded seven new cases of cholera, bringing the total number of infections in the isolation centre to 43 cases, while the number of reported cases seems to be decreasing in El Gedaref.

A woman volunteer activist told Radio Dabanga that the new cases in North Darfur came from camp El Matar, El Jeer district, and the Korkrama area west Kabkabiya. She explained that two of the cases recorded were discharged yesterday before they were fully recovered.

At the same time, a health source told Radio Dabanga that the incidences of cholera in El Gedaref are decreasing.

He pointed out that the isolation centre in El Gedaref Hospital recorded five new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infected people in the centre to 12 cases.

The source pointed out that the rest of the localities of the state have not recorded new cases. There are still a number of hospitalised cases in the isolation centres of El Gallabat West, Galael Nahal and central El Gedaref.

Background

Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that can spread in areas short of clean drinking water and with poor sanitation. In September last year Radio Dabanga received the first reports about cholera cases, in Blue Nile state. Since then, the disease spread in eastern Sudan, and later to the Northern State and central Sudan’s El Gezira. In April, sources in White Nile state reported a rapid spread of cholera. The disease then spread to North Kordofan, and fully hit Khartoum in May, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan said in June.

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