Sudan doctors warn of cholera epidemic

The Doctors Committee in Blue Nile State warned that a cholera epidemic threatens the country. Spokeswoman Dr Shiraz Ahmed called on the Ministry of Health to intervene urgently and take preventive measures to prevent an outbreak of the epidemic.

The Doctors Committee in Blue Nile State reported that more than 30 patients suffered from “acute watery diarrhoea” in the state by Friday. Three of them died and 15 were discharged.

Cholera

Sudan has experienced an epidemic since 2016 which Sudanese government sources and several international organisations persistently refer to it as ‘acute watery diarrhoea’ – in spite of numerous independent confirmations (conducted according to WHO standards) that the disease which broke out in Blue Nile state in August 2016 was cholera.

The WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported in October 2018 that the total number of recorded cases in 2017 reached more than 35,000 – including 800 related deaths. Doctors of Sudan’s National Epidemiological Corporation reported in July last year, however, that nearly 24,000 Sudanese had been infected and 940 cholera patients died in 2017.

In May 2018, Sudan’s then federal minister of health, declared that Sudan is now free of the ’watery diarrhoea’ outbreak (suspected to be cholera) that hit various parts of the country during the past year.

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