Medical source: 16 diarrhoea deaths this week in El Gedaref

Sixteen out of more than 70 people infected with acute watery diarrhoea died in the past week in El Gedaref in eastern Sudan.

A source in El Gedaref hospital told Radio Dabanga that on Wednesday and Thursday, ten new infected people have been admitted to the hospital. The patients receive treatment at the isolated ward.

The State Ministry of Health has not yet diagnosed the disease. On 23 September, the federal Ministry of Health stated that at least 55 people had died of the disease in Sudan. Over 2,600 people in Sudan were infected. The first cases were recorded in Blue Nile state in the third week of August.

Two people died of watery diarrhoea over the weekend in El Gedaref, while two students died in El Gezira shortly after being admitted to the hospital in Wad Medani on Tuesday.

Poor storage in the children's hospital in the state has damaged medicines worth SDG60,000 that were donated to the hospital. “It is a great loss because the medicines are important for surgical operations,” a medical source said. Other medicines were used for treatment of malnutrition and as antibiotics for children who suffer from heart disease.

The hospital administration has neglected the storage for medications, the source said. A similar issue with storage occurred at the Ministry of Health where more than 40 boxes of emergency medicines, which were to be used at the emergency departments of state hospitals, have expired.

Medicines have become more expensive after the implementation of economic measures that impact the drug, fuel and basic commodities markets.