Sudan cholera outbreak: 27 dead in White Nile, cases decline in Red Sea

Since a cholera outbreak was announced in El Gedaref on September 26, the disease has spread to affect nine states in Sudan, with more than 6,900 suspected cases recorded. In White Nile state, almost 30 new deaths were reported this week, whereas efforts to curtail the disease proved effective in Red Sea state where a decline in cases was reported.

The White Nile Health Emergency Committee announced on Wednesday that it recorded 27 cholera-related deaths, and a total of 850 suspected cases in the state.

In a statement, acting state Health Minister Ezzeldin Alwan blamed water and food contamination for the spread of watery diarrhoea and cholera. He called for increased environmental, health, and food safety interventions in areas with the highest infections rates, “most notably in Ed Duweim, Rabak, Kosti, and Gali”.

The minister pressed for intensifying efforts to raise health awareness among residents and urged them to “quickly head to treatment places if they suspect infection or show symptoms”.

In Red Sea state, the state Health Ministry announced a decline in watery diarrhoea and cholera cases, saying it is “now under control”, in a statement yesterday.

Ministry Director Ahlam Abdelrasoul reported a “significant decrease” in cases of infection since the first case was detected on December 5, with a total of 995 cases in Suakin, 540 in Port Sudan, 150 in Tokar, and 15 in Sinkat.

Bamkar Ali, a statistics officer in Sinkat Hospital, said that the hospital received a total of 39 cholera patients since the outbreak of the disease, of which 11 cases are still being treated in the hospital. The officer assured the public that “the necessary medications are available so far, unless there is a large spread of infections in the future”.

Last week, a resident of Agig in the southern part of Red Sea state told Radio Dabanga that the region faces a “complete lack of [cholera] medicines, including any traditional (herbal) solutions.”

Latest numbers

Today, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) said that the total number of suspected cholera cases in Sudan “continues to dramatically increase and reached 6,939 cases as of December 10″, an increase of more than 136 per cent in the span of a month. “The number of associated deaths has doubled over the past month from 97 to 200.”

In its latest Cholera Outbreak Flash Update, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded total of 684 suspected cases and 28 associated deaths in Red Sea state, and 399 suspected cases and 22 associated deaths in White Nile, as of December 2. Other affected states include El Gedaref, El Gezira, Sennar, Kassala, and Blue Nile, Khartoum, and South Kordofan.

OCHA said that despite “critically low” global stockpiles of oral cholera vaccines, “Sudan received approval for around 2.9 million doses”, 35 per cent of the global stockpile.

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, 2.2 million cholera and 7.5 million measles-rubella vaccines were airlifted to Port Sudan in mid-November for distribution to combat disease outbreaks across Sudan, in a collaborative effort from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

The medical response across the country is dramatically curtailed by the ongoing war.