Cholera on the rise in North Kordofan

An increasing number of people reported to hospitals and medical centres in Sheikan locality in North Kordofan with symptoms of cholera.

Sheikan locality witnessed a “dramatic increase” in the rate of cholera infections on Sunday, a local doctor reported to this station.

Dr Amer Adam, the director of El Jebelein Medical Centre, said that until Sunday evening the number of cases that entered El Obeid hospital rose to 55 infected adults, and ten children, including a 14-year-old boy.

Adam: “The administration of El Obeid hospital was forced to open an additional isolation ward, as the hospital's eye department was already transformed into an isolation ward.

School year

“The school year began on Sunday 9 July, which is dangerous for children, who do not comply with public health rules like the adults do,” he explained. The government has refused to delay the opening of the new school year, a decision widely debated by health workers and parents as children are more exposed and susceptible to infection.

Parents of school children in El Obeid, the capital of the state, have expressed their concern about the opening of schools on Sunday. “A number of state schools in the city have been used as cholera isolation centres in the previous period,” one of them said this week.

Since the outbreak of cholera in August last year, 940 Sudanese have died. 23,930 people have been infected all over Sudan, the National Epidemiological Corporation reported on Friday.