Cholera in Sudan: Four dead in Northern State area

The rate of cholera infections in areas of Northern State has increased over the past days. Four people died in one area, while dozens of people were infected.

The affected areas are Abri and El Mahas, specifically Saad Nafatni in El Mahas where a woman died on Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths in this area to four cases in four days.

Dozens of people have been infected with cholera in El Mahas, in Daglo locality, on Sunday and Monday, a source reported. This prompted two basic schools in Saadnafenti to close their doors.

“Parents have prevented their children from going to El Tagmie Basic School on Sunday, while Saad Nafatni School was closed after what seemed like an outbreak of cholera on Monday,” another source told Radio Dabanga.

Patients suffering from other diseases in El Tura Hospital in El Mahas have been evacuated as from Monday onward, the hospital will specialise in treating cholera cases.

The number of cholera cases in El Tura Hospital amounted to four on Sunday, including a patients from the western area of El Mahas.

In Abri, the number of hospitalised cases in the hospital amounted to 18 cases on Sunday, showing “a steady increase” according to the source.

Central Darfur

El Shafie Abdallah, the coordinator of camps in Central Darfur, reported that two residents of Hamidiya camp for displaced people in Zalingei contracted the cholera disease on Monday. This brings the number of cholera cases who are hospitalised at the medical isolation centre in Zalingei to 39 people, El Shafie said.

The National Epidemiological Corporation reported in early July that nearly 24,000 Sudanese have been infected and 940 cholera patients have died since the outbreak of the infectious disease in Blue Nile state in August last year.

The Sudanese authorities however, refuse to call the disease by its name, and instead refer to it as “Acute Watery Diarrhoea”. The National Intelligence and Security Service has repeatedly warned medics and the press in the country not to make mention of cholera.

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