According to a recent press statement, almost 100 people have died in Fangak, Jonglei State, in the northern part of South Sudan from an undiagnosed illness.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Health received a report on November 13, 2021, of multiple deaths affecting youngsters and the elderly with symptoms of high fever, vomiting, weariness, joint pain, loss of appetite, and chest pain that had no known cause.
According to the statement, a team of health professionals was dispatched to the area two days later. The initial finding indicated a high percentage of malaria positively among individuals tested at private clinics.
On December 8, 2021, a rapid response team further investigated but still could not verify the deaths of 89 local authorities. However, a rise in the cases of malaria was confirmed.
According to the sources, the WHO (World Health Organization) initiated an investigation into the outbreak in November, checking patient samples for cholera, a common infectious disease spread by contaminated water, but the results were negative.
The most flood-affected location of Sudan is the “Fangak” in 2021. That has increased the burden of common diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and others.
This extreme flooding is the worst natural disaster in 60 years, displacing over 200,000 people, according to the humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres(MSF), or Doctors without Borders, who noted in a statement last month that the floods create a “perfect storm for disease outbreaks.”
The statement added, “People do not have enough water to drink and for household or options or options for water storage, and there is not at all any garbage collection. However, dead dogs and goats are left rooting in the drainage systems.”
People are at greater risk of outbreaks and waterborne diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea, cholera, and malaria, exacerbated by the inflow of new arrivals (at camps).