Three cholera dead in Sudan’s Sennar

At least three people died and fifteen others were infected with cholera in Sennar state in southern Sudan last week. New cases were reported in North Kordofan and White Nile.

One patient died and four others were infected with cholera in El Turous in El Dali locality, and in El Mazmoum locality in Sennar on Wednesday. The isolation centre in El Mazmoum Hospital received five new cases on Friday, one of which died.

The disease claimed another life in Karakoj, where six others were infected and reported to the local health centre from 20 to 25 June, a health worker reported to Radio Dabanga. “The situation seems stable now,” the source told Radio Dabanga.

After emerging cases in eastern Sudan, and within months, in the Northern State and central Sudan’s El Gezira, the cholera outbreak spread to White Nile state in April, where a rapid spread of cholera is reported. Hospitals in North Kordofan started to receive cholera patients too.

On Friday, at least one person has been infected with cholera in North Kordofan's El Birka in Sheikan administrative unit. “All the former hospitalised cases in the hospital have been discharged,” the director of the medical unit in the area told this station.

On Wednesday, one person suffering from cholera reported at El Farshaya, north of Delling, where eight cases were discharged on Thursday and Friday.

Four new cases were recorded in El Wakra in Tadamon locality on Thursday and Friday, however, raising the number of hospitalised cases to eight patients.

White Nile

Hospitals in the south-eastern White Nile state each reported two to three new cases of cholera on Thursday and Friday: in Kosti, Rabak, El Gezira Aba, El Jebelein, and El Maraabee.

“People in the area are concerned about the spread of the disease among students, when the school open again by the end of July,” the head of civil society organistions in the state, Abdelrahman El Siddig told Radio Dabanga.

Egypt screens passengers

Since the start of the outbreak of cholera in eastern and south-eastern Sudanese states, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Sudanese Ministry of Health did not refer to cholera, but the less severe tern of “acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)”.

WHO has denied informing Egyptian health authorities about a cholera outbreak in Sudan, following the news that Egypt's Cairo airport started screening passengers arriving from Sudan for signs of cholera because of the reported outbreak. Similar measures are already carried out in Cairo airport for people arriving from Yemen because of the cholera epidemic there.

The WHO representative in Sudan, Naeema El Gasseer distanced the international health body from the decision of the Egyptian authorities. “We would like to emphasise that the World Health Organization does not advise any country to take a unilateral decision to examine internal or external travellers from the country in accordance with the international health regulations signed by the Member States, including Sudan and neighbouring countries,” she told Sudan Tribune on Friday.