Latest news with #JoyceBakker
3 days ago
- Health
What to know about a cholera outbreak in Sudan that has killed over 170 people
CAIRO -- A fast-spreading cholera outbreak has hit Sudan, killing 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill in the past week. Centered around Khartoum, the disease has spread as many Sudanese who had fled the country's war return to their homes in the capital and its twin city of Omdurman. There, they often can only find unclean water — a dangerous conduit for cholera — since much of the health and sanitation infrastructure has collapsed amid the fightiing. It is the latest calamity for the African nation, where a 2-year-old civil war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Here is what to know about the new outbreak: The latest outbreak has killed 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill over the past week, according to the Health Ministry. UNICEF said Wednesday that the number of reported cases surged ninefold from 90 a day to 815 a day since from May 15-25. Since the beginning of the year, more than 7,700 people have been diagnosed with cholera, including more than 1,000 children under the age of 4, it said. Most cases have been reported in Khartoum and Omdurman, but cholera was also detected in five surrounding provinces, the ministry said. Joyce Bakker, the Sudan coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said the group's treatment centers in Omdurman are overwhelmed with patients. The 'scenes are disturbing,' Bakker said. 'Many patients are arriving too late to be saved … We don't know the true scale of the outbreak, and our teams can only see a fraction of the full picture.' Khartoum and Omdurman were a battleground throughout the civil war, nearly emptying them of residents. The region of the capital was recaptured by the military in late March from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Since then, some 34,000 people have returned. But the city has been wrecked by months of fighting. Many found their homes damaged. Clean water is difficult to find, in part because attacks on power plants have disrupted electricity and worsened water shortages, UNICEF said. Sanitation systems are damaged. 'People have been drinking polluted water and transferring water into unhygienic containers,' said Dr. Rania Elsayegh, with Sudan's Doctors for Human Rights. Health workers fear the outbreak could spread quickly, since many people are packed into displacement centers making it difficult to isolate those infected. The health system has also broken down. More than 80% of hospitals are out of service and those that are operating have shortages of water, electricity and medication, said Dr. Sayed Mohamed Abdullah, of Sudan's Doctors Union. The World Health Organization describes cholera as a 'disease of poverty' because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. It is a diarrheal disease caused when people eat food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is easily treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics. Most of those infected have only mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. The WHO's global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines has dropped below its minimum threshold of 5 million doses, making it increasingly difficult to stop outbreaks. At the same time, cholera epidemics have been on the rise around the world since 2021, because of poverty, conflict and extreme climate events like floods and cyclones, the U.N. says. The civil war has devastated Sudan since it erupted in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country. At least 24,000 people have been reported killed, though the number is likely far higher. More than 14 million have been displaced and forced from their homes, including over 4 million who streamed into neighboring countries. Famine was announced in at least five locations with the epicenter in the wrecked Darfur region. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that the U.N. and international rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Devastating seasonal floods have compounded Sudan's misery. Each year, dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure washed away. Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. In 2017, cholera left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months. But the war's destruction has fueled repeated outbreaks. Cholera spread across 11 of the country's 18 provinces in September and October, sickening more than 20,000 people and killing at least 626, according to health authorities. Over the course of two weeks in February and March, another outbreak infected more than 2,600 people, and 90 people died, mostly in the White Nile province, according to Doctors Without Borders. Other diseases have also spread. In the past week, an outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, sickened about 12,900 people and killed at least 20, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. At the same time, at least 12 people died of meningitis, a highly contagious, serious airborne viral disease, it said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What to know about a cholera outbreak in Susan that has killed over 170 people
CAIRO (AP) — A fast-spreading cholera outbreak has hit Sudan, killing 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill in the past week. Centered around Khartoum, the disease has spread as many Sudanese who had fled the country's war return to their homes in the capital and its twin city of Omdurman. There, they often can only find unclean water — a dangerous conduit for cholera — since much of the health and sanitation infrastructure has collapsed amid the fightiing. It is the latest calamity for the African nation, where a 2-year-old civil war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Here is what to know about the new outbreak: What's the latest development? The latest outbreak has killed 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill over the past week, according to the Health Ministry. UNICEF said Wednesday that the number of reported cases surged ninefold from 90 a day to 815 a day since from May 15-25. Since the beginning of the year, more than 7,700 people have been diagnosed with cholera, including more than 1,000 children under the age of 4, it said. Most cases have been reported in Khartoum and Omdurman, but cholera was also detected in five surrounding provinces, the ministry said. Joyce Bakker, the Sudan coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said the group's treatment centers in Omdurman are overwhelmed with patients. The 'scenes are disturbing,' Bakker said. 'Many patients are arriving too late to be saved … We don't know the true scale of the outbreak, and our teams can only see a fraction of the full picture.' What's driving the outbreak? Khartoum and Omdurman were a battleground throughout the civil war, nearly emptying them of residents. The region of the capital was recaptured by the military in late March from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Since then, some 34,000 people have returned. But the city has been wrecked by months of fighting. Many found their homes damaged. Clean water is difficult to find, in part because attacks on power plants have disrupted electricity and worsened water shortages, UNICEF said. Sanitation systems are damaged. 'People have been drinking polluted water and transferring water into unhygienic containers,' said Dr. Rania Elsayegh, with Sudan's Doctors for Human Rights. Health workers fear the outbreak could spread quickly, since many people are packed into displacement centers making it difficult to isolate those infected. The health system has also broken down. More than 80% of hospitals are out of service and those that are operating have shortages of water, electricity and medication, said Dr. Sayed Mohamed Abdullah, of Sudan's Doctors Union. What is cholera? The World Health Organization describes cholera as a 'disease of poverty' because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. It is a diarrheal disease caused when people eat food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is easily treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics. Most of those infected have only mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. The WHO's global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines has dropped below its minimum threshold of 5 million doses, making it increasingly difficult to stop outbreaks. At the same time, cholera epidemics have been on the rise around the world since 2021, because of poverty, conflict and extreme climate events like floods and cyclones, the U.N. says. Why is this happening in Sudan? The civil war has devastated Sudan since it erupted in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country. At least 24,000 people have been reported killed, though the number is likely far higher. More than 14 million have been displaced and forced from their homes, including over 4 million who streamed into neighboring countries. Famine was announced in at least five locations with the epicenter in the wrecked Darfur region. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that the U.N. and international rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Devastating seasonal floods have compounded Sudan's misery. Each year, dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure washed away. Were there previous cholera outbreaks? Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. In 2017, cholera left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months. But the war's destruction has fueled repeated outbreaks. Cholera spread across 11 of the country's 18 provinces in September and October, sickening more than 20,000 people and killing at least 626, according to health authorities. Over the course of two weeks in February and March, another outbreak infected more than 2,600 people, and 90 people died, mostly in the White Nile province, according to Doctors Without Borders. Other diseases have also spread. In the past week, an outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, sickened about 12,900 people and killed at least 20, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. At the same time, at least 12 people died of meningitis, a highly contagious, serious airborne viral disease, it said. ___ AP correspondent Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
What to know about a cholera outbreak in Susan that has killed over 170 people
CAIRO (AP) — A fast-spreading cholera outbreak has hit Sudan, killing 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill in the past week. Centered around Khartoum, the disease has spread as many Sudanese who had fled the country's war return to their homes in the capital and its twin city of Omdurman. There, they often can only find unclean water — a dangerous conduit for cholera — since much of the health and sanitation infrastructure has collapsed amid the fightiing. It is the latest calamity for the African nation, where a 2-year-old civil war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Here is what to know about the new outbreak: What's the latest development? The latest outbreak has killed 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill over the past week, according to the Health Ministry. UNICEF said Wednesday that the number of reported cases surged ninefold from 90 a day to 815 a day since from May 15-25. Since the beginning of the year, more than 7,700 people have been diagnosed with cholera, including more than 1,000 children under the age of 4, it said. Most cases have been reported in Khartoum and Omdurman, but cholera was also detected in five surrounding provinces, the ministry said. Joyce Bakker, the Sudan coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said the group's treatment centers in Omdurman are overwhelmed with patients. The 'scenes are disturbing,' Bakker said. 'Many patients are arriving too late to be saved … We don't know the true scale of the outbreak, and our teams can only see a fraction of the full picture.' What's driving the outbreak? Khartoum and Omdurman were a battleground throughout the civil war, nearly emptying them of residents. The region of the capital was recaptured by the military in late March from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Since then, some 34,000 people have returned. But the city has been wrecked by months of fighting. Many found their homes damaged. Clean water is difficult to find, in part because attacks on power plants have disrupted electricity and worsened water shortages, UNICEF said. Sanitation systems are damaged. 'People have been drinking polluted water and transferring water into unhygienic containers,' said Dr. Rania Elsayegh, with Sudan's Doctors for Human Rights. Health workers fear the outbreak could spread quickly, since many people are packed into displacement centers making it difficult to isolate those infected. The health system has also broken down. More than 80% of hospitals are out of service and those that are operating have shortages of water, electricity and medication, said Dr. Sayed Mohamed Abdullah, of Sudan's Doctors Union. What is cholera? The World Health Organization describes cholera as a 'disease of poverty' because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. It is a diarrheal disease caused when people eat food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is easily treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics. Most of those infected have only mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. The WHO's global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines has dropped below its minimum threshold of 5 million doses, making it increasingly difficult to stop outbreaks. At the same time, cholera epidemics have been on the rise around the world since 2021, because of poverty, conflict and extreme climate events like floods and cyclones, the U.N. says. Why is this happening in Sudan? The civil war has devastated Sudan since it erupted in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country. At least 24,000 people have been reported killed, though the number is likely far higher. More than 14 million have been displaced and forced from their homes, including over 4 million who streamed into neighboring countries. Famine was announced in at least five locations with the epicenter in the wrecked Darfur region. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that the U.N. and international rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Devastating seasonal floods have compounded Sudan's misery. Each year, dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure washed away. Were there previous cholera outbreaks? Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. In 2017, cholera left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months. But the war's destruction has fueled repeated outbreaks. Cholera spread across 11 of the country's 18 provinces in September and October, sickening more than 20,000 people and killing at least 626, according to health authorities. Over the course of two weeks in February and March, another outbreak infected more than 2,600 people, and 90 people died, mostly in the White Nile province, according to Doctors Without Borders. Other diseases have also spread. In the past week, an outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, sickened about 12,900 people and killed at least 20, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. At the same time, at least 12 people died of meningitis, a highly contagious, serious airborne viral disease, it said. ___ AP correspondent Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
What to know about a cholera outbreak in Susan that has killed over 170 people
CAIRO (AP) — A fast-spreading cholera outbreak has hit Sudan, killing 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill in the past week. Centered around Khartoum, the disease has spread as many Sudanese who had fled the country's war return to their homes in the capital and its twin city of Omdurman. There, they often can only find unclean water — a dangerous conduit for cholera — since much of the health and sanitation infrastructure has collapsed amid the fightiing. It is the latest calamity for the African nation, where a 2-year-old civil war has caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Here is what to know about the new outbreak: What's the latest development? The latest outbreak has killed 172 people, with more than 2,500 others becoming ill over the past week, according to the Health Ministry. UNICEF said Wednesday that the number of reported cases surged ninefold from 90 a day to 815 a day since from May 15-25. Since the beginning of the year, more than 7,700 people have been diagnosed with cholera, including more than 1,000 children under the age of 4, it said. Most cases have been reported in Khartoum and Omdurman, but cholera was also detected in five surrounding provinces, the ministry said. Joyce Bakker, the Sudan coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said the group's treatment centers in Omdurman are overwhelmed with patients. The 'scenes are disturbing,' Bakker said. 'Many patients are arriving too late to be saved … We don't know the true scale of the outbreak, and our teams can only see a fraction of the full picture.' What's driving the outbreak? Khartoum and Omdurman were a battleground throughout the civil war, nearly emptying them of residents. The region of the capital was recaptured by the military in late March from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Since then, some 34,000 people have returned. But the city has been wrecked by months of fighting. Many found their homes damaged. Clean water is difficult to find, in part because attacks on power plants have disrupted electricity and worsened water shortages, UNICEF said. Sanitation systems are damaged. 'People have been drinking polluted water and transferring water into unhygienic containers,' said Dr. Rania Elsayegh, with Sudan's Doctors for Human Rights. Health workers fear the outbreak could spread quickly, since many people are packed into displacement centers making it difficult to isolate those infected. The health system has also broken down. More than 80% of hospitals are out of service and those that are operating have shortages of water, electricity and medication, said Dr. Sayed Mohamed Abdullah, of Sudan's Doctors Union. What is cholera? The World Health Organization describes cholera as a 'disease of poverty' because it spreads where there is poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. It is a diarrheal disease caused when people eat food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is easily treatable with rehydration solutions and antibiotics. Most of those infected have only mild symptoms but, in severe cases, the disease can kill within hours if left untreated. The WHO's global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines has dropped below its minimum threshold of 5 million doses, making it increasingly difficult to stop outbreaks. At the same time, cholera epidemics have been on the rise around the world since 2021, because of poverty, conflict and extreme climate events like floods and cyclones, the U.N. says. Why is this happening in Sudan? The civil war has devastated Sudan since it erupted in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country. At least 24,000 people have been reported killed, though the number is likely far higher. More than 14 million have been displaced and forced from their homes, including over 4 million who streamed into neighboring countries. Famine was announced in at least five locations with the epicenter in the wrecked Darfur region. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that the U.N. and international rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Devastating seasonal floods have compounded Sudan's misery. Each year, dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure washed away. Were there previous cholera outbreaks? Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. In 2017, cholera left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months. But the war's destruction has fueled repeated outbreaks. Cholera spread across 11 of the country's 18 provinces in September and October, sickening more than 20,000 people and killing at least 626, according to health authorities. Over the course of two weeks in February and March, another outbreak infected more than 2,600 people, and 90 people died, mostly in the White Nile province, according to Doctors Without Borders. Other diseases have also spread. In the past week, an outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, sickened about 12,900 people and killed at least 20, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. At the same time, at least 12 people died of meningitis, a highly contagious, serious airborne viral disease, it said. ___ AP correspondent Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.
North Wales Chronicle
4 days ago
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
New cholera outbreak in Sudan kills more than 170 people in a week
The bulk of the cases were reported in the capital Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman, but cholera was also detected in the provinces of North Kordofan, Sennar, Gazira, White Nile and Nile River, health officials said. Leading medical group Doctors Without Borders — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF — warned that the country's existing health facilities were unable to cope with the surge of patients. According to Joyce Bakker, Sudan co-ordinator for MSF, the alarming spike began in mid-May, with the organisation's teams treating almost 2,000 suspected cholera cases in the past week alone. On Saturday, Sudan's health minister Haitham Ibrahim said the increase in cholera cases just in the Khartoum region had been estimated to average 600 to 700 per week over the past four weeks. Ms Bakker said MSF's treatment centres in Omdurman were overwhelmed and that the 'scenes are disturbing'. 'Many patients are arriving too late to be saved,' she said. 'We don't know the true scale of the outbreak, and our teams can only see a fraction of the full picture.' She called for a united response, including water, sanitation and hygiene programmes and more treatment facilities. In March, MSF said that 92 people had died of cholera in Sudan's White Nile State, where 2,700 people had contracted the disease since late February. The World Health Organisation said that the water-borne disease was a fast-developing and highly contagious infection that caused diarrhoea and led to severe dehydration and possible death within hours when not treated. The disease was transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water. The outbreak is the latest crisis for Sudan, which was plunged into a war more than two years ago, when tensions between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group, or RSF, exploded with street battles in Khartoum that quickly spread across the country. Since then, at least 20,000 people have been reported to have been killed, although the number is likely to be far higher, and more than 14 million have been displaced and forced from their homes. Sudan has also been engulfed by what the United Nations says is the world's largest humanitarian crisis, and disease outbreaks, famine and atrocities have mounted as the African country entered its third year of war. Last week, the Sudanese military said it had regained control of the Greater Khartoum area from the paramilitary forces. Mr Ibrahim, the health minister, attributed the cholera surge to the return of many Sudanese to the Khartoum region — people who had fled their homes to escape the fighting and were now coming back. Their returns had strained the city's dwindling water resources, he said.
