Press release - An estimated 1.68 million people have benefited from a massive response to growing incidences of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera in the north of Sudan, as the Federal Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the State Governments, NGOs and community partners all step up efforts to safeguard drinking water supplies, improve hygiene and food practices, as well as scale up active case detection and appropriate management..

More than 5,800 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been reported in north Sudan since April 2006. About 40 percent of 235 stool specimens collected so far have tested positive for Vibrio Cholera. The number of cases of acute water diarrhoea has increased noticeably in recent weeks, with outbreaks reported in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur as well as settled areas. 194 people have died from this water-borne disease in the last four months.

UNICEF Representative to Sudan Ted Chaiban announced today that UNICEF is supporting the government’s response to the outbreak by providing 2.3 tons of chlorine powder to the most affected communities to disinfect water supplies, along with more than 60 million water purification tablets, 205,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts as well as other medical supplies for treatment of diarrhoea. In addition, UNICEF has supplied 3.6 million bars of soap and 2,000 jerrycans to improve safe water storage and household hygiene. The agency is supporting the provision of information materials and community-based awareness activities to help households protect themselves against the risk of diarrhoea and cholera. Over 15 million people have been reached with 150,000 IEC printed materials distributed as well as radio and TV public service announcements and programmes in eleven affected states reaching.

WHO is providing technical support to the government for containing the current outbreaks, including strengthening the surveillance system for cholera, standardizing case management and scaling up laboratory isolation of cholera organisms in areas not currently affected by the outbreak, enabling appropriate public health containment measures to be undertaken in advance. WHO is also working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health, as well as UNICEF, on daily information sharing and epidemic risk assessment in interrupting transmission and spread of outbreaks into newer areas. WHO has also provided eleven cholera kits to the Federal Ministry of Health – enough for treating more than 3,000 cases using a standard treatment guideline. WHO has also supported the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) with laboratory supplies and diagnostic kits for stepping up laboratory isolation of Vibrio Cholera in the affected states.

“This response has required the efforts of many partners, including those in the federal and state governments, other UN agencies, NGOs and local communities themselves,” said Dr. Mohamed Abdurrab, WHO Representative to Sudan. “As such, it underlines what can be achieved through effective coordination, and strong leadership from authorities on the ground.”

“We are confident that while there is access to affected populations, and communities continue to support the efforts of those working on this operation, we can stem the disease outbreaks,” added UNICEF Representative Ted Chaiban. “It is critical that every water point is safeguarded, and that families and individuals observe minimum sanitation practices and report timely to health facilities once they have symptoms. By working together in this way, the overall situation with regard to cholera has started to improve and the disease has been brought under control in many areas. New areas with disease are however emerging and we remain determined to control the spread of diarrhoeal disease and prevent more deaths.”

UNICEF and WHO have launched a joint appeal for US$ 5.6 million for an ongoing cholera prevention operation; as of today, US$ 1.95 million and US$ 0.6 million has been received or pledged to UNICEF and WHO respectively by donors – including the United States, ECHO and the multi-donor Common Humanitarian Fund.