Sudan is free of acute diarrhoea: health minister
May 6, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s federal health minister said on Sunday that the country is free of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) cases and called for precautionary measures to avoid a repeat of the epidemic, which began in 2016 and 2017.
According to the World Health Organization, cases of acute watery diarrhoea have appeared for the first time in camps hosting internally displaced Sudanese in Darfur.
Speaking at the end of the coordination meeting of Sudan’s states ministers of health held in Senar, Minister Bahr Bahr Idris Abu Garda, said the country had been free of AWD after the outbreak of last year.
Abu Garda, however, underlined the need to take the necessary precautions such as raising awareness, hygiene and chlorination of drinking water to prevent the renewal of the disease.
The transmission of waterborne disease is due to deteriorating humanitarian conditions and lack of access to safe water and sanitation.
Last year, the federal health ministry revealed that AWD outbreak was caused by the collapse in sanitation and drinking water treatment systems in the country’s states.
(ST)