Highlights:
- ARI, the main cause of consultation while ARI and Bloody Diarrhoea appear to be two leading causes of mortality.
- 98 cases of measles, majority from West Darfur, detected.
- Low attack rate of malaria.
- Marginal increase of Bloody Diarrhoea attack rate in Greater Darfur
- No perceptible change of HEV attack rate in all three Darfur states .
REPORTING UNITS
During the current epidemiological week (Between 7-13 May 2005), from a total of 90 reporting units that have received training on the Early Warning And Response Surveillance (EWARS) system, 73 (81%) reporting sites have sent surveillance data which represents an increase of reporting sites by 7.3% over the previous week. 24/33 in West Darfur (increase by 20%), 34/34 in South Darfur (no change) and 15/21 in North Darfur (increase by 7.14%) reported. The weekly number of reporting units by state is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Reporting units, Greater Darfur, Sudan, 22 May, 2004 -- 13 May 2005.
POPULATION UNDER SURVEILLANCE AND CONSULTATIONS
The population under surveillance showed a marginal increase by only 0.42% (1 451 317 compared with 1 445 202 last week) this week. However, the number of consultations increased by a greater margin of 15% this week compared with the increase in number of population under surveillance. The weekly distribution of population under surveillance and the number of consultations is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Weekly distribution of population under surveillance and consultations, Greater Darfur, Sudan, 22 May, 2004 -- 13 May 2005.
PROPORTION OF REPORTED CASES AND DEATHS IN GREATER DARFUR
Between 7 and 13 May 2005, a total of 74 349 cases of conditions under surveillance were reported. Of these, 25% (17 471) were due to Acute Respiratory Tract Infection, 6% (4172) to Clinically Diagnosed Malaria, and 3% (2060) to Bloody Diarrhoea. In the same period, there were 75 reported deaths (an increase of 87 % compared with the previous week). Except the category “Others”, the majority of deaths were due to Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (13%) and Bloody Diarrhoea (12%). The proportion of all reported cases and related deaths is shown in figure 3.
Figure 3: Proportion of all reported cases and deaths, Greater Darfur, Sudan, 7-13 May 2005.
In the under-5 year age group, a total of 27 598 cases of events under surveillance (increase by 19% compared with the previous week) were reported. These constitute 37% of the total consultations during the same period. 32% (8775) of these reported cases were due to Acute Respiratory Tract Infection while 4 % (1237) were due to Clinically Diagnosed Malaria. There were 20 reported deaths in the under-5 year age group (increase by 11% compared with week 18) which represented 26% of total deaths reported from Greater Darfur during the current week. Of these, 2 (10%) were due to Severe Malnutrition. The overall CFR for children under 5 years for the epidemiological week no 18 was 0.07%. The reported cases and deaths in the under-5 year age group are shown in figure 4.
Figure 4: Proportion of cases and deaths in the under 5 year age group, Greater Darfur, Sudan, 7-13 May 2005.
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