Dengue fever kills 79 in Sudan

Nov 7, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — An outbreak of dengue fever in Sudan’s South Kordofan state has killed 79 people in little more than a month, Sudanese health officials told AFP.

“Since its outbreak in late September and until November 6, the dengue outbreak has claimed 79 lives and left 249 in hospitals,” said Majdi Saleh, who heads the health ministry’s epidemics department.

“The disease has spread throughout South Kordofan because the inhabitants were not aware of the nature of its gravity and therefore did not bother to report to hospitals and because the communication system is very poor there,” Sudanese Health Minister Tabita Sokaya said.

“Efforts are being exerted for containing the situation,” Sokaya said, adding that her ministry had issued orders to stock up blood banks, provide refrigerators, medicines and drips and train personnel.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection found in tropical and sub-tropical regions around the world, predominantly in urban and semi-urban areas.

Saleh explained that the virus is carried by the Aedes mosquito, which is active during daytime — four hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset — and breeds indoors, unlike malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

This disease has not occurred in other regions of Sudan and appeared for the first time in South Kordofan in 1967, he said.

Dengue symptoms typically include a high fever and headache as well as aching bones, joints and muscles that give dengue its nickname of “breakbone fever.” Recovery usually takes several weeks.

Its severe, fatal form is called dengue haemorrhaegic fever, or DHF, in which the patient bleeds from the gums and nose.

(AFP/ST)