Unidentified Disease Claimed 100 lives in South Sudan, Doctors Online Ethiopia, December 15 2021
Investigation was launched by the World Health Organization at an unidentified disease that claimed 100 lives in Fangak, Jonglei State of South Sudan.
The South Sudan ministry of health has reported a fast-spreading illness in the northern town of Fangak, in the Jonglei state, which local scientists haven’t been able to identify. Local health officials in Fangak said initial samples from the sick returned negative results for cholera.
The WHO has sent a special task force to the region after health officials confirmed last week that dozens had died in the area which has also been struck by devastating flooding.
“We decided to send a rapid response team to go and do risk assessment and investigation; that is when they will be able to collect samples from the sick people – but provisionally the figure that we got was that there were 89 deaths,” WHO’s Sheila Baya told the BBC.
She added that the group was waiting for transport to return them to the capital Juba on Wednesday.
South Sudan’s minister of land Lam Tungwar Kueigwong said the flooding had brought with it the increased risk of diseases such as malaria and malnutrition in children as a result of food shortages.
International charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which operates in the area, said the chaos caused by the flooding is now ramping up the pressure on the health facilities.
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