Sudan reports over 9,500 cholera cases, 315 deaths

Khartoum, Sep 17 (IANS) Sudan's Ministry of Health said that 9,533 cases of cholera, including 315 deaths, had been recorded in the country.

The ministry said in a statement that the cumulative infection rate of the latest outbreak had reached 9,533 cases as of Sunday, according to Xinhua news agency.

Last month, Sudan's Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim officially declared a cholera outbreak in the country.

"The lab test of watery diarrhoea at the Public Health Laboratory proves it to be cholera," Ibrahim said in a statement.

The announcement came shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) said that about 316 people died of cholera in Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported.

WHO's spokesperson Margaret Harris reportedly said in a media call that 11,327 cholera cases with 316 deaths had been reported in Sudan and that dengue fever and meningitis infections were also on the rise.

She also said that the WHO expects the actual number of cholera infections to be higher than what had been reported.

Since the war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, epidemic diseases such as cholera, malaria, measles, and dengue fever have spread, leaving hundreds dead.