Cholera death, 40 new cases in Sudan’s White Nile state

A woman died of cholera in Um Jar locality in White Nile state on Sunday.

Medical sources told Radio Dabanga that a woman cholera patient died at the Kateer Balla Health Centre on Sunday.

Health centres in Andalus, Kateer Balla, Arafa, and Um Jar received 40 new cases in total on Saturday. 

In the 20 villages in the area of Um Jar, located between Ad Duwaym and Rabak, at least 200 people are afflicted as well. According to the sources, Unicef has sent medical equipment, vaccines and medicines to the Um Jar Hospital, together with a team to conduct a field survey.

‘Watery diarrhoea’

On Friday, a coordinator at the Um Jar Health Centre told Radio Dabanga that about 900 people in Um Jar locality are stricken by ‘watery diarrhoea’.

Since September last year, people in eastern, central, and northern Sudan report cases of ‘watery diarrhoea’. Medics have confirmed that the disease concerns cholera.

The Sudanese authorities however, have instructed all medics and health workers to mention watery diarrhoea only. Earlier this month, a journalist was detained in El Gedaref in eastern Sudan for reporting about cholera.

“It seems a stigma for the government,” a UK-based Sudanese epidemiology specialist told this station in January. He feared that the silence by the authorities will turn into a long-lasting outbreak of cholera cases.