MYSTERY PLAGUE HITS BIBLICAL CUSH
A strange disease, as yet unidentified, has killed almost one hundred people in Sudan, a country already groaning under a number of plagues of near biblical proportions.
In November, the South Sudan Health Ministry began reporting deaths from a mysterious illness that, to date, has killed at least 97 people, mainly the elderly and children aged between 1 and 14. In response to the reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a rapid response team to investigate.
The main symptoms that victims are experiencing include diarrhea, high fever, joint pain, vomiting, body weakness, loss of appetite, and chest pain.
The disease is concurrent with 18 months of the worst flooding Sudan has experienced in 60 years, creating serious risks of an increase in waterborne diseases. The devastating flooding has affected around 835,000 people and displaced 35,000 according to a UN report.
The WHO scientists had to reach Fangak by helicopter due to the flooding to conduct testing.
Fangak County Commissioner Biel Boutros Biel told ABC News that some nongovernmental organizations have delivered medical supplies to Fangak and are in the process of setting up mobile clinics to help treat people.
In a statement last month, international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) called the floods a “perfect storm” for disease outbreaks.
“People do not have enough water or options for water storage, and there is no garbage collection, while dead goats and dogs are left rotting in the drainage systems,” the statement read. “With the conditions further worsened by the influx of new arrivals [at camps], people are at higher risk of outbreaks and waterborne diseases such as acute watery diarrhea, cholera and malaria.”
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