SUDAN: Rains, poor roads hamper mystery disease response

Photo: Peter Martell/IRIN

A southern Sudanese woman in a hospital: Poor infrastructure prevents access to timely healthcare in the region

JUBA, 12 October 2009 (IRIN) - Efforts to identify a haemorrhagic disease that has killed four people in a remote corner of Southern Sudan have been thwarted by bad roads made impassable by heavy rainfall, according to officials.

The deaths took place in Kitkit, a military outpost in Western Bahr al-Ghazal state. On 23 September, the state's director-general of health, Martin Mayen Wol, had written to Southern Sudan's health ministry in Juba to report the deaths and that six soldiers were complaining of nose bleeds and vomiting blood.

"As there is no means to verify the situation and confirm the condition due to the bad roads attributed to the rainy season, we ask your esteemed office for direct intervention through the international and UN bodies," wrote Wol. "The situation is urgent, Sir."

A team from Southern Sudan's health ministry, the UN World Health Organization and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) could only get as far as Timsah, 70km away.

"... Not even a vehicle could move," Nathan Atem, the Director-General of Preventive Medicine, said. "They had to come back."

Without a landing strip, Kitkit is inaccessible even to aircraft. A doctor sent to the region on a flight with the UN Mission in Sudan, following an appeal for help issued in late September, had to turn back.

Blood samples of those infected have been sent to the US Centers for Disease Control labs in Atlanta for analysis.

Ministry of Health Under-Secretary Majok Yak Majok played down fears that Ebola might be to blame for the deaths: "It could be any other disease that can cause bleeding," said Majok. "For a serious outbreak, it could have not remained [as] contained since 23 September."

He noted that if it was a viral infection it would have engulfed the entire region in the three weeks.

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