Cholera rampant in Sudan, WHO fears for neighbours

Aug 29, 2006 (GENEVA) — Cholera is rampant across Sudan, with nearly 25,000 cases and more than 700 deaths recorded this year, and the epidemic threatens neighbouring Chad, a top expert at the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Cholera has broken out in most states of Sudan, including North and South Darfur, but the toll does not include West Darfur where agencies have little access due to insecurity, said Claire-Lise Chaignat, WHO’s global cholera coordinator.

The water-borne disease could easily spread to Chad, where more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur are staying in crowded camps near Abeche, she added.

“It is a huge epidemic and the case fatality rate in southern Sudan is 3 percent, which is high,” Chaignat told Reuters in an interview.

“Chad is only a step away and this bacteria doesn’t respect borders,” she added.

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread by contaminated water or food. It causes vomiting and acute diarrhoea that can lead to dehydration and death within 24 hours.

The new WHO figures come on the heels of a warning on Monday by U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland who told the Security Council that Darfur was on the brink of a fresh humanitarian disaster threatening “massive loss of life”.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to find shelter in miserable camps during 3-1/2 years of fighting in Darfur. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing the Khartoum government of marginalising the remote west.

Sudan’s health ministry has set up a task force with United Nations agencies, including WHO, to combat the epidemic through better hygiene. Most cases respond to oral rehydration salts.

SPREAD TO ETHIOPIA?

An outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea currently raging in Ethiopia, which has reached the capital Addis Ababa, is probably linked to Sudan’s cholera epidemic, Chaignat said.

“There is probably a link with the current cholera epidemic in Sudan, especially the first cases in Gambella (western Ethiopia) in April,” the Swiss expert said.

Acute watery diarrhoea has struck 16,555 people in Ethiopia, killing 200, aid agencies said. They have called for the outbreak to be declared a national emergency.

The ailment is spreading quickly in Ethiopia’s south-central region of Oromiya with “the potential to spread down into Kenya”, they said in an “Emergency Plan for Oromiya region”, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

“We are very worried about Ethiopia, especially as the heavy flooding can accentuate the problem,” Chaignat said.

(Reuters)