Sudan government failing to provide health care: sheikh

In the Garsila camps for the displaced, Central Darfur, 17 persons have died due to an unknown disease within two weeks, including seven elderly, seven children and three young girls. A sheikh from El Jebelein camp told Radio Dabanga about the high incidences of deaths among the displaced. He described the symptoms of the unknown disease as resembling malaria, accompanied by fever and vomiting. He requested the federal and state Ministries of Health to speed up sending medical teams to the region to diagnose the disease and provide urgent medical care in combating the epidemic. The Sheikh of Kireinik locality, West Darfur, Abdallah Abakir El Zubair, reported that in many villages in the locality, especially the areas used by the nomadic herdsmen, have no access to medicines. He called the authorities to speed up the delivery of medications to these areas, which, he stressed, are facing an epidemic. The federal Ministry of Health has sent a medical team, including dermatology specialists, to West Darfur to investigate the cases of scabies that had emerged in several villages of Kireinik locality. The director of the Department of Epidemiology of the federal Ministry of Health, Dr Hayat Salah El Din, said in a press statement that the team have found different skin diseases the inhabitants of the locality are suffering from, including dermal Kala Azar (leishmaniasis), fungal infections and skin allergies. The diseases cause intense itching, scratches and secondary bacterial infection in severe cases. Salah El Din urged the households not to mix with infected persons, as the infection can quickly spread, especially in overcrowded areas, such as the camps for the displaced. She also called for attention to hygiene because the disease results from the accumulation of dirt. Last Saturday, authorities of West Darfur closed two secondary schools for boys at the Kireinik locality for a week, after about 100 students had been infected with dermal Kala Azar and scabies, which spread in the locality since last month, and infected about 3000 people in the locality and the surrounding villages. The spread of mosquitoes and flies in Murnei camp for the displaced, West Darfur, has led to outbreaks of diarrhoea and malaria. An activist told Radio Dabanga that the spread of the insects have led to the outbreak of these diseases especially among children. He added that there are between three to four deaths per day, while about 100 patients visit the hospital daily to receive treatment, pointing out that most of them are women, children and the elderly. Sadly, he noted, the price of medicines for malaria has risen to SDG100 ($22.50) in the hospital. The activist asked the state and locality authorities to speed up providing medicines and spraying pesticides. In North Darfur, the displaced of Dankoj and Jebel camps in Saraf Omra locality have complained of the outbreaks of malaria, diarrhoea and a rise in death tolls, especially among children and pregnant women. One of the sheikhs of the Dankoj camp explained to Radio Dabanga that the accumulation of rainwater inside the Dankoj and Jebel East camps has led to the breeding of mosquitoes and the consecutive spread of diarrhoea and malaria. A large number of displaced are living in the open air after heavy rains destroyed their homes and caused the death of 12 displaced people, including children and women during August. The sheikh demanded the international community and the UN Security Council to press the Sudanese authorities to allow the return of the humanitarian organisations since the federal government is completely failing in the provision of medicines and health care for the displaced in Darfur. File photo by Albert González Farran/Unamid Related: Diseases kill at least 25 in three Darfur states (16 September 2013) Scabies epidemic in West Darfur (12 September 2013)