Suspected cholera still haunts Central Darfur

Acute watery diarrhoea suspected to be cholera is still prevalent in the villages of Nierteti and the western areas of Jebel Marra in Central Darfur.

On Wednesday, the medical isolation centres in Nierteti and Kuweila recorded four new cases, bringing the number of cases held in the two centres to 22 until yesterday. Medical isolation units receiving people suffering from ‘acute watery diarrhoea’ reported 26 new cases in western Jebel Marra in Central Darfur on Monday.

A voluntary work activist in Central Darfur appealed to organisations and the Ministry of Health to intensify their movement to reach out to the remote villages so as to raise awareness and health education for residents about the spread of the disease.

According to cases reported to this station, the death toll in Nierteti this year amounts to at least 20: 18 people were reported to have died from acute watery diarrhoea in Nierteti in February, and two people in this month so far.

‘Acute watery diarrhoea’ is the term the Sudanese authorities and several international organisations use for the disease of which the spread turned into epidemic proportions last year. Doctors and epidemiologists at the time independently confirmed the cases of “diarrhoea” to be cholera.

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