A multi-agency operation to contain an
outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea which have killed at
least 89 people in the Juba and Yei areas of southern Sudan, is
ongoing.
More than 4,906 people have been infected in
the two areas since the end of January, according to the World
Health Organization (WHO).
As part of its efforts to help contain the
disease at a way station for internally displaced people in Juba,
IOM has been asked by the office of the UN Deputy Humanitarian
Coordinator for southern Sudan to manage and disperse monies from a
UN sponsored emergency response fund.
An initial amount of US$74,000 is supporting
the work of the WHO, IOM and two non-governmental organizations,
the Adventist Development and Reconstruction Agency (ADRA) and
Medair who are providing medical services in both the quarantined
and non-quarantined clinics now established at the way station. IOM
has managed the setting up of a quarantined area at the way
station, put up an ICRC donated field hospital tent, and is
carrying out medical evacuations to Juba hospital.
An IOM medical team, which had been on site to
assist the return by IOM of more than 4,000 displaced Dinka tribes
people to Bor, north of Juba up the White Nile, is supporting the
staff of both Medair and ADRA.
More than 800 vulnerable Dinkas had already
been taken to Bor on an IOM chartered ferry prior to the outbreak
and the decision to suspend the operation had been taken in order
to avoid the spread of the disease.
"Although the number of new cases has now
dropped, it will be a few days still before we have a clearer
picture of the situation here," said Mark Petzoldt of IOM in
Juba.
For further information, please contact:
Louis Hoffmann
Tel: +1 617 650 2396 or +2499 121 70095
Email:
"mailto:lhoffmanntdy@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">lhoffmanntdy@iom.int