Hepatitis hits Sudan’s Darfur

GENEVA – The UN’s health body raised alarm yesterday over a jump in deadly cases of hepatitis E in Sudan’s Darfur region and another agency said a new wave of refugees had fled to neighbouring Chad to escape the violence.

The United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) also warned that Chad was worried about the harmful impact of the refugee influx on its fragile economy. Hoping to ease the crisis in Darfur, which has prompted up to 200 000 people to escape to Chad and 1,2 million to flee their homes internally, a third international organisation said it was due to sign an accord with Sudan on Thursday to assist the safe return of citizens.The World Health Organisation (WHO) said unclean water and terrible sanitation had triggered more than 1 000 cases of hepatitis E, resulting in at least 27 deaths.The figures compared with 625 cases and 22 deaths reported last week.”It is not a minor thing,” said WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib.”It shows how bad water and sanitation is in the camps despite the international organisations’ efforts to improve it,” she told a news conference in Geneva, where the global health body is based.Hepatitis E has a low mortality rate compared with hepatitis B and C, but its outbreak in Sudan — a country that until now had been free of the disease — could have a devastating impact among vulnerable people such as pregnant women and children, the spokeswoman said.The agency, with help from Sudanese health officials and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was trying to raise awareness about the illness, which is passed person-to-person and is typically linked with dirty water, and was also delivering water purification tablets.Nampa-AFPHoping to ease the crisis in Darfur, which has prompted up to 200 000 people to escape to Chad and 1,2 million to flee their homes internally, a third international organisation said it was due to sign an accord with Sudan on Thursday to assist the safe return of citizens.The World Health Organisation (WHO) said unclean water and terrible sanitation had triggered more than 1 000 cases of hepatitis E, resulting in at least 27 deaths.The figures compared with 625 cases and 22 deaths reported last week.”It is not a minor thing,” said WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib.”It shows how bad water and sanitation is in the camps despite the international organisations’ efforts to improve it,” she told a news conference in Geneva, where the global health body is based.Hepatitis E has a low mortality rate compared with hepatitis B and C, but its outbreak in Sudan — a country that until now had been free of the disease — could have a devastating impact among vulnerable people such as pregnant women and children, the spokeswoman said.The agency, with help from Sudanese health officials and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was trying to raise awareness about the illness, which is passed person-to-person and is typically linked with dirty water, and was also delivering water purification tablets.Nampa-AFP