Two die of ‘watery diarrhoea’ in Central Darfur’s Nierteti

Two people died from watery diarrhoea, suspected to be cholera, in Nierteti in Central Darfur last week. About 45 new cases were recorded in the locality.

A volunteer told Radio Dabanga that Nierteti Hospital has received a number of patients on Saturday and Sunday.

“The symptoms are similar to those of cholera,” she said. “After two of the patients died, the others were transferred to the hospital‘s isolation centre”.

“The first cases appeared in the villages of Kodi and Mara in Nierteti locality and spread to the other villages and neighbouring localities,” she noted.

Epidemic

Sudan suffered from a cholera epidemic in 2017. In spite of numerous independent confirmations (conducted according to WHO standards) that the disease was cholera, the Sudanese authorities and several international organisations still call it ‘Acute Watery Diarrhoea’.

In August 2016, the first cases of suspected cholera were recorded in Blue Nile State in the south-eastern part of the country. The infectious disease then spread to other parts of eastern Sudan, and later to northern and central Sudan. After it fully hit Khartoum in May last year, it spread to Darfur.

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 however that 940 cholera patients had died so far.

The spread of the disease seemed to subside in the end of last year. However, a slight increase in cases was reported during the last week of 2017 and the first week of this year: 46 and 30 new cases respectively were registered in eastern Sudan.

Follow #CholeraInSudan, #الكوليرا_السودان for ongoing coverage by Radio Dabanga