One person has died and 30 others have been infected with cholera in South Sudan in a resurgence of the disease not seen since 2017, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.
In a statement released on Saturday evening, the ministry “informs the public that an outbreak of cholera has declared itself in the county of Rubkona, in the state of Unity”, in the north of the country.
“To date, a total of 31 cases, including one death, have been recorded in the locality of Rubkona and in the Bentiu IDP camp”, details the press release, specifying that all the patients have been treated and left the hospital. hospital.
“The Ministry of Health and its partners are continuing research (…) to identify additional cases of cholera,” he adds.
According to government and World Health Organization data, the first case was reported on March 20 in a two-year-old girl, officially confirmed by authorities on April 14.
A 7-year-old child who tested positive died on March 25.
South Sudan had not experienced cholera since December 2017 and the last recorded cases of an epidemic declared in June 2016 which had killed 436 people (for more than 20,000 cases recorded).
The world’s youngest country, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been plagued by armed violence for years and experienced its worst flooding in decades in 2021 and 2022, displacing millions of South Sudanese who live in often unsanitary conditions.
An acute diarrheal infection causing sometimes fatal dehydration, cholera is contracted by the absorption of water or food products contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae.
The disease develops in areas, often populated, with limited access to drinking water or without suitable sanitation networks.
According to estimates, there are between 1.3 million and 4 million cases of cholera worldwide each year, causing between 21,000 and 143,000 deaths.
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