Hemorrhagic fever kills 52 in Sudan

Nove 2, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Fifty two people have died of hemorrhagic fever in South Kordofan State in central Sudan. The deaths are out of a total of 176 cases observed up to yesterday in all parts of the state, excluding the south eastern areas.

Head of the health department at the Humanitarian Aid Commission at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs Dr Mohamed Hussein, who informed Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper of the deaths, said the government, in coordination with the network of the Nuba Mountains organizations and other national organizations, had drawn up an emergency plan to contain the epidemic.

Hussein said all medical personnel in the network had been mobilized to implement an emergency investigative, therapeutic campaign to contain the disease in the state.

In this regard, he said a high-ranking federal delegation from the Ministries of Health and Humanitarian Affairs would be leading a medical convoy of mobile medical equipment to southern Kordofan. He further revealed plans to quarantine those infected with the fever from the rest of the residents to stop the spread of the disease.

Dr Hussein pointed out that the hemorrhagic fever was a severe viral infection carried by the Egyptian female Anopheles mosquito that breeds in fresh water.

The infection causes a severe decrease in the number of blood platelets and a very high increase in body temperature. He said the cure for the disease involved blood transfusions, intravenous drugs, antibiotics and antipyretics.

(ST)