Cholera outbreak in southern Sudan

ABSTRACT

During the later part of May 2008, an outbreak of cholera was confirmed at Magwi county of Eastern Equatoria state, one of the 10 states of southern Sudan. The laboratory test done on stool samples at the AMREF laboratory in Kenya isolated Vibrio cholerae 01 serotype Ogawa as the causative pathogen for this outbreak. The Ministry of Health of southern Sudan reported a total number of 181 suspected cases of cholera including 18 deaths [CFR10%] between 28 April to 17 May 2008. Most of the cases are clustered around three payams of Magwi county– Magwi Center, Pajok and Owinyikibul. The source of infection for this current outbreak has been presumed to be contaminated water and environmental risk factors like use of river water contaminated with human waste, poor sanitation in the affected areas have been identified as the main reason for propagation of this outbreak