North Darfur health inspector resigns over government silence on cholera

Seven people have died and dozens have reportedly been infected with cholera in Tawila in North Darfur on Tuesday and Wednesday. The increased epidemic rates in the locality have led to the resignation of a state health inspector in protest against the government's silence and denial of cholera.

Public health specialist at the Ministry of Health in North Darfur, Esam Osman Zakaria, who resigned from the ministry in protest against the government's silence and denial of cholera, told Radio Dabanga that “Kabkabiya is facing a terrible shortage of medical staff working in the hospital amid increasing increase in cases of cholera”.

Zakaria said that he resigned from the Department of Health Promotion in the Ministry “because of misty reports on 'watery diarrhoea' in Kabkabiya, the Director General and the Ministry’s cover up and non-response to the demands of the teams that have been sent to the area.”

He said: “The suspected cases who enter the screening centre, do not find care and are not supposed to wait for two minutes if it appears that the infected person has to be brought to the isolation room. The doctor must always be in the centre”. Unfortunately, most of those who died at the screening centre because of diarrhoea because patients stay there for three days, and sometimes patients get sick because of non-sterilisation”.

Activists in voluntary work in Kabkabiya praised the step and said that Zakaria is right in his decision to resign considering that the issue is humanitarian and must be treated with transparency.

A woman activist from Kabkabiya announced to Radio Dabanga that on Wednesday four people died of cholera in Ghurrat El Zawya Hospital and 54 others have been infected.

She said that the deterioration of the situation amid a lack of medicine in the hospital 30 kilometres north-west of Kabkabiya prompted the local health authorities to resort to the organisation of Doctors without Borders (MSF) to provide more local cadres and medicines to save the situation.

In Kabkabiya Four people died of cholera in the city hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday a woman activist in voluntary work in Kabkabiya told Radio Dabanga that the cholera isolation centre in the hospital recorded four deaths on Tuesday and Wednesday. She announced the existence of 22 hospitalised cases inside the centre still receiving treatment.

‘False state media reports’

An activist in the voluntary work told Radio Dabanga that the reality in the hospitals is very poor, contrary to what the state media says, and the reports submitted by doctors to the humanitarian organisations which are incorrect.

Sennar

A person died of cholera in El Dindir hospital in Sennar and dozens have been infected with the disease during the past three days.

The Hospital of Singa, capital of Sennar, received about 16 new cases of cholera from Monday to Wednesday.

On Wednesday a health source told Radio Dabanga from Singa that the isolation centre of cholera received 7 cases on Monday, 4 cases Tuesday and 5 cases on Wednesday from the localities of El Dindir and El Souki and Singa.

Tokar

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Red Sea Hospital in Tokar in eastern Sudan received 33 cases of cholera, bringing the number of cases to 69 infections and 3 deaths in one week.

Health sources said the hospital has established two isolation centres for cholera.

The sources attributed the spread of the epidemic to contamination of drinking water.

The sources said the government has been covering up for the cases of infection and preventing volunteers from approaching the isolation centres.

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