109 Die as Cholera Outbreak Hits South Sudan

July 31, 2014 – At least 109 people have died in South Sudan out of 4,765 people infected with Cholera since outbreak of the disease in April, 2014, the group, Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) Doctors Without Borders has said.

The group has treated more than 904 patients for Cholera since the beginning of July this year and has set up two cholera treatment centers—in Malakal and Wau Shilluk—where they are treating cholera patients from affected areas.

“Cholera is a treatable disease that can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated promptly. It causes severe dehydration that can lead to death in a matter of hours,” says Llanos Ortiz, MSF’s medical emergency manager for South Sudan.
Only three weeks into the MSF intervention, 19 people have lost their lives to cholera, making the situation a humanitarian concern that needs rapid response to contain, the group said.

The vulnerability of populations in these areas has been exacerbated by the conflict that started in December last year, which has forced people to move into crowded internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and protection of civilians (PoC) camps with poor living conditions favorable for the spread of the disease.
“Lack of clean and safe drinking water is a common problem in the area. In Wau Shilluk, an area with an estimated population of 50,000 people, IDPs have been forced to use unprotected surface water and most people have turned to open defecation, given the extremely low number of latrines.

“The ongoing heavy rains wash the feces into drinking water sources, thus completing the oral-fecal transmission and allowing communicable diseases like cholera to spread”, the group said, adding that aid agencies in the area are working to ensure that more latrines are constructed and sanitation standards maintained to help improve the population’s ability to break this oral-fecal transmission.

The prevalent food insecurity situation in Upper Nile and resultant malnutrition makes the population even more susceptible to infectious diseases such as cholera since their immunities are weak and they can easily succumb to death, the group said, adding that to date, MSF teams have admitted more than 3,195 people, mostly children, to its therapeutic feeding programs in Malakal, Wau Shilluk, Kodok, and Lul in Upper Nile State.