Minister: Decline in ‘acute diarrhoea’ cases in Darfur’s Jebel Marra

Sudan's Minister of Health, Bahar Idris Abugarda, reported that the number cases of 'acute watery diarrhoea' or cholera in East Jebel Marra has decreased to less than five reported cases a day.

Minister Abugarda visited the cholera isolation centre in Lebei in East Jebel Marra for the first time this week. He said that medicines will reach the people of Jebel Marra, “even to the areas where the [armed] movements are located”.

He reported that the required medicines have been dispatched from Khartoum to Deribat and Lebei.

The minister's visit coincided with the opening of a new branch for isolating cases of cholera in Fina, and another one planned to open soon in Dodu. In a speech to reporters after his visit, Abugarda called on everyone to cooperate with the medical cadres to help saving lives.

“The situation in East Jebel Marra is still worrying, with the occurrence of many cases of death in remote areas.”

The Health Minister also visited Nyala, capital of South Darfur, and neighbouring Kass on Saturday. He told the press in Nyala that the situation in Sudan in general has improved: no new cases were recorded in six states in the past few days.

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has repeatedly warned medics and the press in the country not to make mention of cholera. The National Epidemiological Corporation, however, reported in July that nearly 24,000 Sudanese have been infected and 940 cholera patients have died since the outbreak of the infectious disease in Blue Nile state in August last year.

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