Rift Valley fever suspected in Sudan’s Red Sea state, mycetoma plagues El Gezira

20/02/2020 16:43 ARYAB / WAD MADANI

The deaths of large numbers of livestock and cases of fever among residents in Aryab in Sudan’s Red Sea state, have raised concerns for the possible re-emergence of Rift Valley fever in the area. Mycetoma infections are plaguing El Gezira state.

Sometimes a simple prich from an acacia thorn can become infected with mycetoma (File photo: Bernard Dupont/Creative commons)

The deaths of large numbers of livestock and cases of fever among residents in Aryab in Sudan’s Red Sea state, have raised concerns for the possible re-emergence of Rift Valley fever in the area. Mycetoma infections are plaguing El Gezira state.

Health work activists in Aryab have called on the state and federal government to intervene urgently to save the residents and livestock.

In El Gezira state, medical sources have said that more than ten foot amputations have had to be carried out at Wad Shigiddy in eastern Wad Madani due to mycetoma (also known as Buruli ulcer) infections.

The sources pointed out that 13 suspected cases were transferred to Soba in Khartoum state and Wad Madani Centres this week, noting that the number of cases is expected to increase during the coming period.

They explained that the village received delegations from the Mycetoma Centre, El Gezira University, and El Gezira Ministry of Health.

Sudan has been facing various disease outbreaks in the past months, including cholera, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever (RVF), chikungunya, and malaria, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its Sudan Situation Report in December.

Mycetoma is a chronic, progressively destructive morbid inflammatory disease usually of the foot but any part of the body can be affected. Sometime only a prick from a thorn can become infected (source: WHO).

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