A yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's Darfur
region has killed 107 people in the last six weeks; the World Health Organization
warns that the disease could spread to the rest of the country. The death toll
is gradually climbing; officials reported that 67 people had died just last
week from the outbreak. There is no medicinal cure for yellow fever, which
is spread by female mosquitoes. Doctors can treat the main symptoms -
dehydration, fever, bleeding and vomiting - and hope for the viral infection to
pass.
As part of the emergency response program,
2.4 million doses of the yellow fever vaccine are scheduled to arrive in the
Sudanese capital next week. More than 350 suspected cases of yellow fever have
been reported in Darfur since late September, and more than 30 per cent of
people showing symptoms have died, according to a WHO statement. Majority of
the infected are under the age of 29.
Sudan health ministry says that the disease
is “definitely spreading” to new remote areas of Darfur, where Sudan's government
has been battling rebel groups since 2003. More than 300,000 people have been
killed in the conflict, and health care services are unavailable to most
residents as a result of the turmoil. The recent heavy rain season in Darfur,
created additional breeding sites for the disease-carrying mosquitoes, where
the disease thrives in hot-humid environments.
This is a very dangerous warning flag for
Sudan, because of the conflict rebels will not want to leave their fellow
rebels to get a yellow fever shot. I would tell a policy maker to get multiple
teams to go into these remote areas, to promote and provide the vaccine. This
is not a viable answer with so much conflict going on in Darfur, much less, who
would volunteer. I don’t see this problem going away any time soon, the
instability of the country does not allow for rapid dispersion of medicine.
Sudan will have to be creative in attempts to contain and stop Yellow fever,
from spreading.
Article Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/11/20121113181553383429.html
Stories like these are always scary to me because disease pandemics are difficult to control and can often be as deadly as/more deadly than armed conflict. This could definitely pose a problem for the rest of Sudan as well as other countries regionally, especially given its untreatable nature. Given the struggles we have seen manifest when trying to deal with AIDS, I worry that yellow fever will pose similar issues.
ReplyDeleteI believe that with a smart policies, Sudan could combat this epidemic very efficiently since many of the measures needed to be taken is similar to malaria which many African countries unfortunately have experience with. These policies may include education about the disease and preventative measures, and another interesting one is making people play for mosquito nets (at a very low price) rather than handing it out making it more likely that they would use it. Another talking point which i take out of this is Sudan's need to be able to produce the vaccines on their own so they could provide it for the whole population at a cheaper price. Similar to the way aids medicines where able to be made at cheaper prices (though some would argue that this had adverse effects for reasons which i believe would not be relevant to this topic).
ReplyDeleteThe Darfur region is plagued with problems, and now this hits it. I am guessing that with the poor health services in Sudan, this is a serious problem which many are aware of. Othman gives good policies that the government can implement. But it could also be as easy as NGOs sending mosquito nets. Some problems start from such tiny beginnings and they end up in massive proportions.
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