Highlights
Flood response in Darfur In response
to the flood-affected Maternity Hospital in El Fasher Town, North Darfur,
WHO is providing 75 drums of water to ensure sufficient water supply after
the destruction of the city water pipe. WHO also put sandbags as a fence
for the Maternity Hospital, also called El Fasher New Hospital, to protect
it from future flooding. See sections on flood response in North Darfur
and West Darfur. See photos of floods in North Darfur www.emro.who.int/sudan
The 6th round of polio National Immunization Days (NIDs) were carried out all over Darfur from 20 to 24 August.
The mass measles vaccination campaign in South Darfur started on August 14 and will continue until August 28.
Mortality and morbidity profile: Acute Respiratory Infections, Clinically Diagnosed Malaria, Injuries and Bloody Diarrhoea remain leading causes of morbidity. The majority of categorized deaths was caused by Acute Respiratory Infections, followed by Severe Malnutrition.
WHO tasks and programmes
Improved access to hospital care and referral systems
North Darfur
Support to hospitals
WHO has supplied furniture to the central laboratory of El Fasher Teaching Hospital
WHO is providing the necessary amount of oxygen to El Fasher Teaching Hospital for the remaining of 2005.
West Darfur
Support to hospitals
Rehabilitation works of the drainage system at El Geneina Hospital have been suspended because of lack of funds.
Action points
WHO in collaboration with health partners at State level is supporting the possibility to complete the rehabilitation works of the drinking water system at El Geneina Hospital.
Communicable disease control and surveillance & outbreak response
North Darfur
Bloody Diarrhoea
The weekly attack rate for Bloody diarrhoea decreased further from 10.7/10,000 in week 31, to 9.7/10,000 last week to 9.4/10,000 reported this week.
Flood response
In spite of the floods damage and continuous rains, the health situation in Abu Shoak IDP camp is stable.
Malaria
The weekly attack rate of clinically diagnosed Malaria decreased from 1.94/1,000 last week to 1.86/1,000 this week. Two deaths were reported.
Polio
During the Polio NIDs carried out from 20 to 24 August, the last two days were used to follow up on areas in El Fasher Rural and Dar Alsalam IDP camp that were missed.
West Darfur
Bloody Diarrhoea
The weekly attack rate for Bloody Diarrhoea slightly increased from 15.0/10,000 last week to 16.5/10,000 this week.
Cholera Preparedness
As part of the Cholera Preparedness and Response Plan, 17 medical assistants and 18 medical doctors working in primary health care facilities in IDP camps were trained by WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health.
Malaria
The weekly attack rate of clinically diagnosed Malaria has decreased from 2.93/1,000 last week to 2.8/1,000 this week.
Meningitis
One new case of suspected meningitis was reported in the under 5 year age group from Kerenik IDP camp.
Neonatal Tetanus
Three new deaths of Neonatal Tetanus were reported this week, in addition to one death reported during the previous week.
Action points
WHO is supporting a rapid assessment carried out by the NGO MSF into the continuous high cases of Acute Jaundice Syndrome and Bloody Diarrhea in Mukjar.
Case investigation into the cases of Neonatal Tetanus is ongoing.
WHO is following up on the sample of the suspected meningitis case that was sent to the National Public Health Laboratory in Khartoum for verification.
South Darfur
Acute jaundice syndrome
South Darfur continues to report the highest percentage of Acute Jaundice Syndrome cases in the whole of Darfur. This week 51% (169 out of 330 cases) of the caseload was reported from South Darfur, compared to 58% (247 out of 427 cases) last week and 61% (287 out of 464 cases) the preceding week.
Bloody Diarrhoea
The weekly attack rate for Bloody Diarrhoea increased from 16.7/10,000 last week to 18.5/10,000 this week.
Malaria
The weekly attack rate of clinically diagnosed Malaria has increased from 4.74/1,000 last week to 6.77/1,000 this week.
Measles
One case of Measles was reported in the under 5 year age group from Ottash IDP camp. The expected steady decrease in risk of transmission is in accord with the mass Measles vaccination campaign ongoing in South Darfur. The campaign is an initiative of WHO, UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Health.
Action points
Case investigating is ongoing into the Measles case in Ottash IDP camp.
Improved access to primary health care and environmental health
North Darfur
Access to Primary Health Care
The assessment of medical doctors working in health facilities for the conflict-affected population who were previously trained in Integrated Management of Child Illness (IMCI) continues: this week nine health facilities were visited in El Fasher Town and results were satisfactory.
During a 4-day workshop 18 medical assistants were trained in Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) case management using syndromic approach. The training was organized by the State Ministry of Health of Health (SMoH), WHO and UNFPA and funded by the Sudan National AIDS Programme (SNAP).
Flood response
WHO set up a unit in Abu Shoak IDP camp for constant monitoring of the quality of the drinking water and of the chlorination process.
As part of the sanitation program in El Fasher Town, carried out by SMoH in collaboration with the Water and Environmental Sanitation department (WES) and with support of WHO, 32 community health workers were trained to chlorinate the 16 functioning hand pumps out of the original 30. Chlorine is injected in the water containers, used to carry the water from the hand pumps to the households.
Vector control spraying campaigns are ongoing in the flood-affected IDP camps of Abu Shoak and Al Salam camp and it will be continued for 6 days.
The Sudanese Youth Union is continuing the community health promotion campaigns and community mobilization in El Fasher Town as part of the Flood Response programme.
Action points
WHO is following up on the comparison of the results of the water quality monitoring system with the change in number of environment-related diseases such as Bloody Diarrhoea and Acute Watery Diarrhoea.
West Darfur
Access to Primary Health Care
An assessment of the health facilities in Ardamata IDP camp (estimated population of 35,000) and Durti IDP camp (estimated population of 8,000) was conducted concluding a good coverage of primary health care. Several gaps were identified, such as the absence of water sources inside the Durti health units; the unavailability of some of the essential drugs; and a weak presence of reproductive health services
Action points
WHO will be providing the Guidelines and Case Definition for Common Diseases in IDP camps as well as other guidelines for surveillance diseases to the health facilities in Ardamata and Durti IDP camps.
Flood response
Drinking water quality
Because of the imminent risk of contamination of drinking water at household level, WHO will be carrying out hygiene promotion activities in the flood-affected Ardamata IDP camp focusing mainly on water handling at the household level. Chlorination at the camp has already been initiated by the NGO Medair into the main water source. WHO provided chlorine and Aqua tabs to the NGO Medair and WES.
A cleaning campaign will be carried out in Ardamata, Al Ryad, Al Hujaj, Krindung and Durti IDP camps between WHO, SMoH, WES and all NGOs active in the camps. WHO provided the lead agencies in Al Ryad, Krindung and Al Hujaj with t-shirts and heavy duty gloves.
Out of the five water sources tested at Al Ryad camp for Residual chlorine by WES, one was not chlorinated and one had an inadequate dose.
Vector control
A mass vector control spraying campaign was conducted at Ardamata and Al Ryad IDP camps IDP using the insecticides Ancothrin1 and Diazinon. The campaign consisted of space spraying in addition to motorized spraying and was conducted in by the Saudi Red Crescent and the NGOs Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA) and Triangle.
Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) has been initiated in the four IDP camps of Zalingei as a collaborated effort between SMoH and the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and will continue for two weeks.
Action points
WHO is supporting the NGO Medair and WES in the digging and construction of the collapsed latrines at Ardamata IDP camp.
WHO is following up on the implementation of the Roll Back Malaria programme in Ardamata IDP camp.