Aid agencies brace themselves for potential cholera epidemic in Sudan

23 July 2004 One family in Darfur’s Kalma camp, to where 60,000 refugees have fled, has been quarantined and samples sent away to Khartoum for testing after a child displayed some of the symptoms of the disease. World Vision’s health specialist in Darfur, Dr Mesfin Teklu, said the discovery was a “very serious concern” for the humanitarian community particularly because the work to protect refugees from the disease wouldn’t take effect for another three weeks. “If an outbreak happens, it will prove disastrous,” he said. “We expect that as many as 3,000 could initially contract the disease, but what makes this potentially so much worse is that people are moving between the camp and the town of Nyala. The camp is not quarantined, so the town is also at risk.”

The World Health Organisation has already labelled the camp “ripe for a cholera outbreak”. The disease is highly contagious and spread by dirty water. If not treated, someone can die within six hours of contracting it. Preventing cholera at all refugee camps depends very much on providing many more latrines and getting clean, safe water to people. In Kalma camp, there are currently fewer than 200 latrines for more than 50,000 people. There is supposed to be one for every 20 people. Thankfully the money raised in the Disaster Emergency Committee’s Sudan Emergency Appeal will be used by member agencies, among other things, to provide many more latrines and such essential aid as water purifying tablets and clean water containers. The large exodus of people fleeing the violence in Sudan has already prompted comparisons with the humanitarian crisis on the borders of Rwanda a decade ago. With the spectre of cholera hanging over areas populated by tens of thousands in Sudan and Chad, further comparisons will no doubt be drawn. Of more than one million refugees who fled to Goma to escape the Rwandan genocide, 40,000 died in a few short weeks from a cholera epidemic.

Dr Teklu said the aid agencies were frantically working to vaccinate as many people as possible against the disease, but that it may prove too late as it takes up to a month for the vaccination to take effect. “There are inoculations going on in the camp, but that doesn’t protect people from cholera until after 20 days. You administer the vaccination in two doses. The second, ten days after the first. Immunity from the disease occurs ten days after the second injection.” This means that if the child does have cholera, then people in the camp may already have contracted the disease. The vaccination will, however, help to check the spread of the disease if it does take hold. Aid workers in other camps in Chad are warning that they could also be facing what Oxfam spokesperson, Jane Bean, called a “ticking time bomb.” “In camps like Breidjing, the water is disgustingly polluted with human and animal faeces and rotting dead animals. I saw people standing their buckets in mud and animal droppings then throwing them into the well to get water. As the rains continue this situation will only get worse. So we’re very worried about an outbreak of cholera.” This threat of cholera comes on top of the growing number of cases of malaria in both Chad and Sudan. Aid workers warn there is a severe shortage of treated mosquito nets and they are meeting more people who are telling them that their relatives are developing the disease. 

To make a donation or find out more information about the DEC visit our website at www.dec.org.uk, send a cheque/postal order to made payable to the: DEC Sudan Emergency, PO BOX 999, London EC3 or call 0870 60 60 900

The DEC charities benefiting from the Sudan Emergency are: British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

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