Sudan’s River Nile State suffers poor healthcare as malaria spreads

Residents of El Damer locality in the northern River Nile State complain about the deterioration of health conditions, lack of hospital medical staff. Refuse in stagnant water pools is promoting the spread of malaria in Kassala state in eastern Sudan.

Lawyer Mohammed Arman told Radio Dabanga on Thursday that El Damer hospital lacks medical personnel and services: Only one general doctor attends once a week. This leads to overcrowding in the hospital as patients must wait for many hours.

Arman said that “this leads people from El Damer to seek treatment in Atbara and Khartoum. However, many of them die before reaching the hospitals. This applies especially to pregnant women.

He appealed via Radio Dabanga to the authorities to care for the area by providing a specialist doctor.

Malaria

The residents of Kassala have warned of a pending environmental disaster as malaria-carrying mosquitos proliferate in water ponds.

On Thursday teacher Sheikh Mohammad Nur told Radio Dabanga that Kassala is suffering of the spread of mosquitoes because of people dumping refuse on bridges and streets without the supervision of health authorities. “This hampers drainage which will lead to serious environmental disaster”.

He urges the authorities in Kassala to intervene immediately and spray the ponds to avert a disaster.