Three die of ‘watery diarrhoea’, 30+ new cases in Central Darfur

Two people died of ‘watery diarrhoea’, suspected to be cholera, in Central Darfur's Jebel Marra over the weekend. 29 new cases were recorded. The isolation ward at Nierteti Hospital reported one death and five new patients.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a medical volunteer at the hospital of Nierteti, southwest of Jebel Marra, reported the death of one ‘watery diarrhoea’ patient in the isolation ward on Sunday.

“Five new cases were admitted, which brings the total number of patients in the ward to 20,” he said.

A villager reported to this station that "two people died of cholera in the isolation unit in Mara village,on Saturday and Sunday. There are now 16 patients at the unit, 14 of them were brought in this weekend.”

The makeshift isolation unit in Kuweila received 10 new cases on Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 35, he said.

The source added that an isolation centre was opened at neighbouring Korifal village last week. “With five new patients who were brought in on Saturday, there are now 48 patients being treated in the centre.”

‘Cholera epidemic’

In spite of numerous independent confirmations (conducted according to WHO standards) that the disease which broke out in Blue Nile State in August 2016 was cholera, the Sudanese authorities and several international organisations still call it ‘Acute Watery Diarrhoea’.

The infectious disease spread to other eastern Sudan states, and later to northern and central Sudan. After it fully hit Khartoum in May last year, it spread to the western part of the country.

According to the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health in mid-October 2017, the total number of reported cases across 18 states of Sudan reached more than 35,000 people – including 800 related deaths since the outbreak of the disease.

Doctors of Sudan’s National Epidemiological Corporation reported in early July that year however, that nearly 24,000 Sudanese had been infected and 940 of them died.

End September the epidemic seemed to subside. At that time the Nierteti Hospital was treating about ten cases of cholera – most of them came from the camps for displaced people in the neighbourhood.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its humanitarian bulletin in January that despite the low level of new cases, a slight increase in patients was reported in eastern Sudan during the last week of 2017 and the first week of this year.

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