North Darfur lawmaker calls to determine nature of diarrhoea outbreak

September 4, 2017 (EL-FASHER) – A member of the North Darfur Legislative Council urged the state ministry of health to diagnose cases similar to the watery diarrhoea epidemic appeared at El-Fasher Teaching Hospital.

MP Suleiman Mukhtar Musa told Sudan Tribune on Monday he noted the presence of a large number of patients suffering from diarrhoea. when he went to the hospital with a patient.

“But so far, they have not confirmed whether the diarrhoea is a watery diarrhoea or not … Unfortunately, there are at least 11 critical cases,” he added.

Since nearly two months, independent doctors groups and opposition parties reject statements by the medical authorities about Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD), and call on the government to officially declare a cholera outbreak in the Sudan.

According to statistics released last August by the Sudanese ministry of health and the World Health Organization (WHO), the AWD killed 657 individuals during the period of August 2016 to August 2017. The reports further said that 30762 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been reported during the past 12 months.

For his part, the Director General of the Ministry of Health in the State of North Darfur Mounir Matar denied the emergence of any cases of acute watery diarrhoea in the state.

“Diarrhea cases that came to the hospital are very normal and there are no AWD cases in any of the state’s hospitals,” he told Sudan Tribune.

In their joint report, the WHO and the Sudanese health authorities project additional 36,000 to 40,000 cases over the next six to nine months.

“The AWD is affecting all demographics, with females constituting 54 per cent of the cases and children under five years of age accounting for 8.1 per cent,” said UNOCHA in its latest bulletin of 27 August.

(ST)