Seven children die in North Darfur camp, Dengue fever cases in El Fasher

Seven children died in Shangil Tobaya camp in North Darfur within the last ten days. In El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, two people died of Dengue fever on Sunday. 15 others are infected. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, the coordinator of the Shangil Tobaya camp said that an unknown disease hit the camp, “in particular the children”. “Seven children died the past ten days, among them two siblings who both died on Monday. They were vomiting blood, and complaining of severe headaches.” The camp coordinator said that the area is extremely short of health care. “Besides, the road to El Fasher is too unsafe to transport the patients to a hospital over there.” He appealed to relief organisations to intervene and provide medications in order to contain the outbreak. Dengue fever* The North Darfur state’s Ministry of Health announced that two people died of Dengue fever on Sunday, and 15 other are infected in four districts of El Fasher. The state’s Minister of Health, Mohamed Ahmed Abdelhafiz, confirmed to the press that are no Ebola hemorrhagic fever cases, “despite the similarity of the symptoms”. He explained that the patients show symptoms similar to malaria, accompanied by bleeding from the nose and mouth. “The Ministry took samples, that were sent to the Central Laboratory in Khartoum. 13 cases turned out to be Dengue fever, which is also caused by mosquito bites.” Abdelhafiz stressed the importance of mosquito nets. He added that the Ministry will establish quarantine units near El Fasher airport, where people coming from Ebola-stricken countries will be examined. * Dengue fever is a painful, debilitating mosquito-borne disease caused by any one of four closely related Dengue viruses. These viruses are related to the viruses that cause West Nile infection and Yellow Fever. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and skin rash. People with weakened immune systems, as well as those with a second or subsequent dengue infection, are believed to be at greater risk for developing Dengue hemorrhagic fever. File photo: A woman is accompanying her husband, a Yellow Fever patient at the Teaching Hospital in El Geneina, West Darfur, November 2012 (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Six refugees die of fever, malnutrition in Central Darfur camp (27 October 2014) Children dying of malnutrition in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya (26 October 2014) Two die from bleeding, fever in West Kordofan (24 October 2014)