Six refugees die of fever, malnutrition in Central Darfur camp
The Chadian refugees of Um Shalaya camp, Azum locality in Central Darfur, complain about increased deaths, caused by “an unknown fever”, accompanied by coughing, vomiting, and diarrhoea. “Six people died so far, among them three children,” Wardi Bahreldin, representative of the Chadian refugees in Darfur, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday. He said that the first cases appeared on 20 October. “Currently there is no home without a patient suffering from this fever.” He added that there is only one health centre in the camp, and appealed to the state’s health authorities and aid organisations to provide more health care and medicines “as soon as possible”. Three patients in one bed The medical assistant of the Um Shalaya refugee camp attributed the deaths to the spread of diseases such as malaria and respiratory infections. “Besides many people, and in particular children, are suffering from diarrhoea. Most of them are chronically malnourished,” he explained to Radio Dabanga. “These days, the general practitioner and two medical assistants at the health centre are receiving between 350 to 400 patients daily. We are currently accommodating between 120 to 175 people in the centre, which means that one bed is shared by three patients. Apart from an acute lack of beds, we are also short of medicines,” he stressed. Pollution, tuberculosis A medical specialist at the Ministry of Environment has confirmed the emergence of hitherto unknown diseases in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. “In particular these war-torn regions show an increase in pollution rates.” The director of the National Programme Against Tuberculosis, Dr Heba Kamal, recently announced that there are more than 20,000 cases of tuberculosis in Sudan. She warned that a number of patients have become immune to the treatment. “This means that the fatality rate will rise to 50 percent.” File photo: Staff members of El Geneina Teaching Hospital receive vaccination against Yellow Fever, November 2012 (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Children dying of malnutrition in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya (26 October 2014)Two die from bleeding, fever in West Kordofan (24 October 2014)
The Chadian refugees of Um Shalaya camp, Azum locality in Central Darfur, complain about increased deaths, caused by “an unknown fever”, accompanied by coughing, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
“Six people died so far, among them three children,” Wardi Bahreldin, representative of the Chadian refugees in Darfur, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday. He said that the first cases appeared on 20 October. “Currently there is no home without a patient suffering from this fever.”
He added that there is only one health centre in the camp, and appealed to the state’s health authorities and aid organisations to provide more health care and medicines “as soon as possible”.
Three patients in one bed
The medical assistant of the Um Shalaya refugee camp attributed the deaths to the spread of diseases such as malaria and respiratory infections. “Besides many people, and in particular children, are suffering from diarrhoea. Most of them are chronically malnourished,” he explained to Radio Dabanga.
“These days, the general practitioner and two medical assistants at the health centre are receiving between 350 to 400 patients daily. We are currently accommodating between 120 to 175 people in the centre, which means that one bed is shared by three patients. Apart from an acute lack of beds, we are also short of medicines,” he stressed.
Pollution, tuberculosis
A medical specialist at the Ministry of Environment has confirmed the emergence of hitherto unknown diseases in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. “In particular these war-torn regions show an increase in pollution rates.”
The director of the National Programme Against Tuberculosis, Dr Heba Kamal, recently announced that there are more than 20,000 cases of tuberculosis in Sudan. She warned that a number of patients have become immune to the treatment. “This means that the fatality rate will rise to 50 percent.”
File photo: Staff members of El Geneina Teaching Hospital receive vaccination against Yellow Fever, November 2012 (Albert González Farran/Unamid)
Related:
Children dying of malnutrition in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya (26 October 2014)
Two die from bleeding, fever in West Kordofan (24 October 2014)
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