South Darfur form new committee to tackle “AWD” outbreak

September 6, 2017 (NYALA) – The government of South Darfur has set up a high-level body to work alongside the state health ministry’s emergency committee to tackle the “Acute Watery Diarrhoea” (AWD) that has hit large parts of the state.

Sudanese health authorities refuse to declare a suspected outbreak of cholera an epidemic despite the death of 657 people and infection of 30762 others since August 2016 when it appeared in the Blue Nile state.

They insist that the disease is the Acute Watery Diarrhoea.

The formation of the new committee comes in response to the increase of AWD cases in more than six localities of South Darfur state as health authorities have been unable to handle the disease among calls for intervention by the federal ministry of health.

Dozens of people were killed, especially in the localities of Sharq Jabel Marra, Ed al-Fursan, Katyla, Kass, and Bielel, as well as a number of neighbourhoods in Nyala.

An official source told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday that the South Darfur Ministry of Health recalled employees on annual leaves and ordered them to resume their work immediately until the containment of the disease.

For his part, South Darfur Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Jamal Youssef said they equipped more than 23 cars to participate in the cleaning campaign, with national and foreign organizations, while the security services supported the chlorination of water sources by dozens of cars.

In a joint report released last August, the Sudanese ministry of health and the World Health Organization (WHO) project additional 36,000 to 40,000 AWD cases over the next six to nine months.

(ST)