Cholera outbreak in Sudan capital kills 70 in two days
The health ministry for Khartoum state said it recorded 942 new infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths on Tuesday.
The surge in infections comes weeks after drone strikes blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) knocked out the water and electricity supply across the capital.
The capital has been a battleground throughout two years of war between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
The army-backed government announced last week that it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last bases in Khartoum State two months after retaking the heart of the capital from the paramilitaries.
The city remains devastated with health and sanitation infrastructure barely functioning.
Up to 90 percent of hospitals in the conflict's main battlegrounds have been forced out of service by the fighting.
The cholera outbreak has piled further pressure on the healthcare system.
The federal health ministry reported 172 deaths in the week to Tuesday, 90 percent of them in Khartoum state.
Authorities say 89 percent of patients in isolation centres are recovering, but warn that deteriorating environmental conditions are driving a surge in cases.
Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war broke out.
Since August 2024, health authorities have recorded more than 65,000 cases and over 1,700 deaths across 12 of Sudan's 18 states.
Khartoum state alone has seen more than 7,700 cases, more than 1,000 of them in children under five, and 185 deaths since January.
"Sudan is on the brink of a full-scale public health disaster," the International Rescue Committee's Sudan director, Eatizaz Yousif, said.
"The combination of conflict, displacement, destroyed critical infrastructure and limited access to clean water is fueling the resurgence of cholera and other deadly diseases."
Aid agencies warn that without urgent action, the spread of disease is likely to worsen with the arrival of the rainy season next month, which severely limits humanitarian access.
The war between the paramilitaries and the regular army has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million since it erupted in April 2023.
At least three million people fled from Khartoum state alone, but more than 34,000 have returned since its recapture by the army in recent months, according to UN figures.
Most have returned to find their homes devastated by the fighting, with no access to clean water or basic services.
According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, more than one million children are at risk in cholera-affected areas of Khartoum.
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Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Rethinking HIV treatment with tailored solutions for improved patient engagement and outcomes
The health department has R622-million extra to prop up South Africa's HIV treatment programme in the wake of foreign aid cuts. But it's only about a fifth of the total gap. We look at how data can help drive decisions to make the most of this lifebuoy. Just over two weeks ago, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that the Treasury had given R622-million of emergency funding to his department to prop up South Africa's HIV treatment programme, with about R590-million for provinces' HIV budgets and R32-million for the chronic medicine distribution system, which allows people to fetch their antiretroviral treatment from pick-up points other than clinics, closer to their homes. This extra budget is just over a fifth of the roughly R2.8-billion funding gap that the health department says the country needed after US President Donald Trump's administration pulled the plug on financial support for HIV in February. (The Pepfar/Aids relief budget for this financial year was just under R8-billion, but the health department calculated that it could fill the void with R2.8-billion if it trimmed extras and ruled out duplicate positions.) So, how to get the best bang for these limited bucks — especially with the health department wanting to get 1.1-million people with HIV on treatment before the end of the year and so reach the United Nations targets for ending Aids as a public health threat by 2030? By getting really serious about giving people more than one way of getting their repeat prescriptions for antiretroviral (ARV) medicine (so-called differentiated service delivery), said Kate Rees, the co-chairperson of the 12th South African Aids Conference to be held later this year, from Kigali last week, where she attended the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science. At another Kigali session, Lynne Wilkinson, a public health expert working with the health department on public health approaches to help people stay on treatment, said: 'People who interrupt their antiretroviral treatment are increasingly common, but so are people who re-engage, or in other words start their treatment again after having stopped for a short period.' A big part of South Africa's problem in getting 95% of people who know they have HIV on ARVs (the second target of the UN's 95-95-95 set of cascading goals) is that people — sometimes repeatedly — stop and restart treatment. For the UN goals to be reached, South Africa needs to have 95% of people diagnosed with HIV on treatment. Right now, the health department says, we stand at 79%. But the way many health facilities are run makes the system too rigid to accommodate real life stop-and-start behaviour, says Rees. This not only means that extra time and money are spent every time someone seemingly drops out of line and then comes back in, but also makes people unwilling to get back on board because the process is so inconvenient and unwelcoming. Rees and Wilkinson were the co-authors of a study published in the Journal of the International Aids Society in 2024, whose results helped the health department update the steps health workers should follow when someone has missed an appointment for picking up their medicine or getting a health check-up — and could possibly have stopped treatment. 'We often have excellent guidelines in place, built on solid scientific evidence,' says Rees, 'but they're not necessarily implemented well on the ground.' To make sure we track the second 95 of the UN goals accurately, we need a health system that acknowledges people will come late to collect their treatment and sometimes miss appointments. This doesn't necessarily mean they've stopped their treatment; rather that how they take and collect their treatment changes over time. 'The standard ways in which the public health system works mostly doesn't provide the type of support these patients need, as the resources required to provide such support is not available,' says Yogan Pillay, the health department's former deputy director-general for HIV and now the head of HIV delivery at the Gates Foundation. 'But with AI-supported digital health solutions and the high penetration of mobile phones, such support now can — and should — be provided at low cost and without the need to hire additional human resources.' We dived into the numbers to see what the study showed — and what they can teach us about making the system for HIV treatment more flexible. Does late equal stopped? Not necessarily. Data from three health facilities in Johannesburg that the researchers tracked showed that of the 2,342 people who came back to care after missing a clinic appointment for collection medication or a health check, 72% — almost three-quarters — showed up within 28 days of the planned date. In fact, most (65%) weren't more than two weeks late. Of those who showed up at their clinic more than four weeks after they were due, 13% made it within 90 days (12 weeks). Only one in 14 people in the study came back later than this, a period by which the health department would have recorded them as having fallen out of care. (Some incomplete records meant the researchers could not work out by how much 8% of the sample had missed their appointment date.) The data for the study was collected in the second half of 2022, and at the time national guidelines said that a medicine parcel not collected within two weeks of the scheduled appointment had to be sent back to the depot. 'But it's important to distinguish between showing up late and interrupting treatment,' notes Rees. Just because someone was late for their appointment doesn't necessarily mean they stopped taking their medication. Many people in the study said they either still had pills on hand or managed to get some, despite not showing up for their scheduled collection. Pepfar definitions say that a window of up to 28 days (that is, four weeks) can be tolerated for late ARV pick-ups. Pepfar is the US HIV programme that funds projects in countries like South Africa, but most of them were cut in February. Research has also shown that for many people who have been on treatment for a long time already, viral loads (how much HIV they have in their blood) start to pass 1,000 copies/mL — the point at which someone could start being infectious again — about 28 days after treatment has truly stopped. Sending back a parcel of uncollected medicine after just two weeks — as was the case at the time of the study — would therefore add an unnecessary administration load and cost into the system. (Current health department guidelines, updated since the study and in part because of the results, say that a medicine pick-up point can hold on to someone's medicine for four weeks after their scheduled appointment.) Does late equal unwell? Not always. In fact, seven out of 10 people who collected their next batch of medication four weeks or more late had no worrying signs, such as possible symptoms of tuberculosis, high blood pressure, weight loss or a low CD4 cell count, when checked by a health worker. (A low CD4 count means that someone's immune system has become weaker, which is usually a sign of the virus replicating in their body.) Moreover, given the large number of people without worrying health signs in the group for whom data was available, it's possible that many of those in the group with incomplete data were well too. When the researchers looked at the patients' last viral load results on file (some more than 12 months ago at the time of returning to the clinic), 71% had fewer than 1,000 copies/mL in their blood. A viral count of fewer than 1,000 copies/mL tells a health worker that the medicine is keeping most of the virus from replicating. It is usually a sign of someone being diligent about taking their pills and managing their condition well. Yet clinic staff often assume that people who collect their medicine late are not good at taking their pills regularly, and so they get routed to extra counselling about staying on the programme. 'Most people don't need more adherence counselling; they need more convenience,' says Rees. Offering services that aren't necessary because of an inflexible process wastes resources, she says — something a system under pressure can ill afford. Rees says: 'With funding in crisis, we really have to prioritise [where money is spent].' Does late equal indifferent? Rarely. Close to three-quarters of people who turned up four weeks or more after their scheduled medicine collection date said they had missed their appointment because of travelling, work commitments or family obligations. Only about a quarter of the sample missed their appointment because they forgot, misplaced their clinic card or for some other reason that would suggest they weren't managing their condition well. Part of making cost-effective decisions about how to use budgets best is to offer 'differentiated care', meaning that not every patient coming back after a missed appointment is treated the same way, says Rees. Health workers should look at by how much the appointment date was missed, as well as a patient's health status to decide what service they need, she says. Giving people who've been managing their condition well enough medicine to last them six months at a time can go a long way, Wilkinson told Bhekisisa's Health Beat team in July. 'Getting 180 pills in one go reduces the number of clinic visits [only twice a year], which eases the workload on staff. But it also helps patients to stay on their treatment by cutting down on their transport costs and time off work,' Wilkinson said. Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Namibia have all rolled out six-month dispensing — and have already reached the UN's target of having 95% of people on medicine at a virally suppressed level. According to the health department, South Africa will start rolling out six-month dispensing in August. 'But not everyone wants this,' said Wilkinson, pointing out that experiences from other countries showed that 50 to 60% of people choose six-monthly pick-ups. It speaks to tailoring service delivery to patients' needs, says Rees, rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all system when more than one size is needed. Says Rees: 'Facing funding constraints, we really need tailored service delivery to keep the [HIV treatment] programme where it is.' DM
eNCA
26-07-2025
- eNCA
'Famine', 'starvation': the challenges in defining Gaza's plight
The United Nations and NGOs are warning of an imminent famine in the Gaza Strip -- a designation based on strict criteria and scientific evidence. But the difficulty of getting to the most affected areas in the Palestinian territory, besieged by Israel, means there are huge challenges in gathering the required data. - What is a famine? - The internationally-agreed definition for famine is outlined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative of 21 organisations and institutions including UN agencies and aid groups. The IPC definition has three elements. Firstly, at least 20 percent of households must have an extreme lack of food and face starvation or destitution. Second, acute malnutrition in children under five exceeds 30 percent. And third, there is an excess mortality threshold of two in 10,000 people dying per day. Once these criteria are met, governments and UN agencies can declare a famine. - What is the situation in Gaza? - Available indicators are alarming regarding the food situation in Gaza. "A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving", according to the World Health Organization's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Food deliveries are "far below what is needed for the survival of the population", he said, calling it "man-made... mass starvation". Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Friday that a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at its clinics in Gaza last week were malnourished, blaming Israel's "deliberate use of starvation as a weapon". Almost a third of people in Gaza are "not eating for days" and malnutrition is surging, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday. The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the previous 72 hours "due to malnutrition and starvation". The very few foodstuffs in the markets are inaccessible, with a kilogramme (two pounds) of flour reaching the exorbitant price of $100, while the Gaza Strip's agricultural land has been ravaged by the war. According to NGOs, the 20 or so aid trucks that enter the territory each day -- vastly insufficient for more than two million hungry people -- are systematically looted. "It's become a technical point to explain that we're in acute food insecurity, IPC4, which affects almost the entire population. It doesn't resonate with people," said Amande Bazerolle, in charge of MSF's emergency response in Gaza. "Yet we're hurtling towards famine -- that's a certainty." - What are the challenges in gathering data? - NGOs and the WHO concede that gathering the evidence required for a famine declaration is extremely difficult. "Currently we are unable to conduct the surveys that would allow us to formally classify famine," said Bazerolle. She said it was "impossible" for them to screen children, take their measurements, or assess their weight-to-height ratio. Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East programme director for the NGO Action Against Hunger, said the "continuous displacements" of Gazans ordered by the Israeli military, along with restrictions on movement in the most affected regions; "complicate things enormously". Nabil Tabbal, incident manager at the WHO's emergency programme, said there were "challenges regarding data, regarding access to information". - Can famine still be avoided? - For France's foreign ministry, malnutrition and the "risk of famine" is the "result of the blockade imposed by Israel". The Israeli military denies it is blocking humanitarian aid entering Gaza. On Tuesday it claimed that 950 truckloads of aid were inside the Strip waiting for collection and distribution by international organisations. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer insisted there was "no famine caused by Israel. There is a man-made shortage engineered by Hamas." Hamas has consistently denied that. The New York Times on Saturday reported that, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved, "the Israeli military never found proof" supporting the official Israeli allegation. NGOs have accused Israel of imposing drastic restrictions. More than 100 NGOs -- including MSF, Caritas, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Medecins du Monde, Christian Aid and Oxfam -- have urged Israel to open all land crossings and "restore the full flow of food" into Gaza. - What does a famine declaration tell us? - A fresh Gaza IPC assessment is due very soon. For some, the technical debates over a famine declaration seem futile given the urgency of the situation. "Any famine declaration... comes too late," explained Jean-Martin Bauer, the WFP's director of food security and nutrition analysis. In Somalia in 2011, when famine was formally declared, half of the total number of victims of the disaster had already died of starvation. Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Israeli campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. By Célia Lebur
Eyewitness News
26-07-2025
- Eyewitness News
Britain 'taking forward' Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer's office
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said. "The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance," a statement said. In a phone conversation, Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza "which they agreed is appalling". "They all agreed it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace," according to a readout released by Downing Street. "They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan.... which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region. They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it," it added. The discussion comes a day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience". Aid groups have warned of surging cases of starvation, particularly among children, in war-ravaged Gaza, which Israel placed under an aid blockade in March amid its ongoing war with Hamas. That blockade was partially eased two months later. The trickle of aid since then has been controlled by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
