‘Complete lack of medicines’ as cholera rates rise in Sudan

Sudan continues to witness a rapid increase in cholera cases, with a daily rise in the death toll. According to a report by the Sudanese Ministry of Health in Port Sudan yesterday, the region’s cholera rates rose to 4,831 cases, including 151 fatalities.

El Gedaref in Eastern Sudan recorded the highest rates of cholera in the country, with 1,808 cases and 46 deaths, followed by El Gezira with 1,345 cases and 23 deaths.

Red Sea state recorded 683 cases, 28 of whom died, while the number of cholera cases in the White Nile state reached 399 cases, including 22 deaths, and the cholera epidemic first spread in El Gedaref and Khartoum in September, before moving to other states of Sudan.

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, 2.2 million cholera and 7.5 million measles-rubella vaccines were airlifted to Port Sudan for distribution two weeks ago to combat disease outbreaks across Sudan. 

On Sunday, Agig locality in the southern part of Red Sea state recorded five new cases and one death.

Hashim Omar, a resident of Agig, told Radio Dabanga that the region faces a “complete lack of medicines for this disease, including any traditional (herbal) solutions.”

Omar explained that several areas in the locality are witnessing the spread of cholera cases, due to the severe environmental deterioration, with people resorting to digging holes to obtain drinking water.

OCHA  

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 3.1 million people in Sudan are at risk of cholera in eight states between July and December 2023.

The latest OCHA situation report explains that as of 2 December 2023, at least 5,178 suspected cases of cholera, including 161 associated deaths (case fatality rate of 3.1 per cent), were reported from 46 localities of nine states, according to the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization Sudan Outbreaks Dashboard.

Health ministries in Sudan are calling on the public to take measures to curtail the spread of cholera, urging them to empty, wash, and dry all water tanks and containers, and leave them exposed to the sun for three days, and also to prevent standing water against the proliferation of mosquitoes, the main vectors for dengue fever and malaria. The medical response across the country is dramatically curtailed by the ongoing war.