Sudan: Major deadly meningococcal disease outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
*
Sudan: Major deadly meningococcal disease outbreak*
21 Feb 2007 17:11:00 GMT
Source: Medair - Switzerland
Sudan (Southern Sudan) - The outbreak began over six weeks ago and has
spread throughout the country, with eight of Southern Sudan's 10 states
being affected. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on 15
February (ref. 1) that there are 1,129 suspected cases, with 96 people
having died.
The Medair medical emergency response team (ERT) is seeing 30 new cases
each day, and providing life-saving treatment to 203 patients so far. In
the first few days, Medair saw one or two people die every day from the
disease, because they had arrived for treatment too late.
For this reason, Medair is actively engaged in promoting health
awareness in the local communities. The ERT is visiting the surrounding
villages, informing the communities about signs and symptoms of the
disease, how it is transmitted and what to do to prevent spreading
Meningitis. People are encouraged to come to the clininc as soon as they
start having symptoms which considerably improves their chance of surviving.
At the national level, Medair is providing technical guidance on
outbreak control and management.
Due to the geographical scope of the outbreak, the emergency response
was coordinated by the Ministry of Health of the Government of Southern
Sudan. In addition to Medair's participation, other partner
organisations include: WHO; UNICEF; Emergency Preparedness & Response
(EP&R); UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); European Commission
Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO); Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC); and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF).