Watery diarrhoea claims two lives in Sudan’s El Gedaref

Listeners reported from El Gedaref town that on Saturday two people died of acute watery diarrhoea in the El Gedaref Hospital.
They said that a week ago two young women students at a boarding house in the town centre were found infected by the deadly disease. “It seems that the infection then spread to the various neighbourhoods,” one of the sourcves told this station.
He added that there are currently more than 20 people suffering from acute watery diarrhoea being treated in the El Gedaref Hospital. “The quarantine ward received two cases from Hamra and Um Sineibra villages on Sunday morning.”

Two people died from watery diarrhoea in El Gedaref in eastern Sudan over the weekend.

Listeners reported from El Gedaref town that on Saturday two people died of acute watery diarrhoea in the El Gedaref Hospital.

They said that a week ago two young women students at a boarding house in the town centre were found infected by the deadly disease. “It seems that the infection then spread to the various neighbourhoods,” one of the sourcves told this station.

He added that there are currently more than 20 people suffering from acute watery diarrhoea being treated in the El Gedaref Hospital. “The quarantine ward received two cases from Hamra and Um Sineibra villages on Sunday morning.”

The sources all pointed to “significant shortcomings in the diagnosis and control of the disease”, and called on “the government and health bodies of El Gedaref state to accelerate efforts to provide adequate health care to the infected and eradicate the disease”.

Blue Nile state

In September, Radio Dabanga received reports about infections with acute watery diarrhoea from the southeastern region of the country. Hospitals and various Blue Nile state medical centres received dozens of patients. Tests conducted by the Blue Nile state Health Ministry showed that the diarrhoea was caused by bacteria.

On 23 September, the federal Ministry of Health stated that at least 55 people had died of the disease. Over 2,600 people in Sudan were infected. The first cases were recorded in Blue Nile state in the third week of August.

No cholera

The Health Ministry reported an increase in watery diarrhoea cases in the three states of Kassala, Blue Nile and River Nile, but did not refer to the nature of the diarrhoea, nor mentioned an outbreak of a cholera epidemic.

The Ministry further strongly denied rumours that Khartoum state recorded a number of cholera cases, but said that a number of people acute watery diarrhoea were admitted to a hospital in the Sudanese capital.

People continue to reports new infections to Radio Dabanga. On 28 November a baby girl died of the disease in Port Sudan. At least 12 other watery diarrhoea cases were being treated in hospitals in the capital of Red Sea state.