NO fewer than 40 persons have been reported dead in Sudan’s Darfur region in what Doctors Without Borders (MSF) describes as the country’s worst cholera outbreak in years.
The medical charity said Darfur, a western region and major battleground in more than two years of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has been the hardest hit in the year-old outbreak.
“In the Darfur region alone, MSF teams treated over 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths in the past week,” the organisation said in a statement on Thursday.
Nationwide, 2,470 cholera-related deaths have been recorded in the year to August 11, out of nearly 99,700 suspected cases, MSF added.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through food or water contaminated with bacteria, often from faeces. Symptoms include severe diarrhoea, vomiting, and muscle cramps.
