Since 15 June, a cholera epidemic has hit Kalma Camp in south Darfur where Médecins du Monde has been running a programme of primary healthcare for the last two years.
Currently, the epidemic has affected about 30 people within Kalma Camp. With approximately more than 100,000 people enclosed in the camp, the epidemiological risks there are very high.
The cholera epidemic has already affected towns in south Sudan (Yeo, Juba, Bor and Malakal) at the beginning of the year. The rainy season risks spreading it throughout the south Sudan region where, in the town of Nyala, a number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been detected, of which 8 cases of cholera have been confirmed since the beginning of June.
Since June, MdM has maintained a strict surveillance of potential epidemic risks – with the most notable example being the installation of a cholera treatment centre (CTC) at Kalma Camp, with a 100 bed-capacity inside its healthcare unit. An early warning plan was activated on Thursday 16 June when the first cholera case within the camp was admitted.
MdM’s medical teams are all mobilised in the field so that they are ready to implement any treatment and ready to follow patients affected by cholera, in co-ordination with the authorities and with the international community also present on site. Immediate action has been taken to raise awareness among the population, and to manage the sanitation (via chlorination of water) in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading.
Médecins du Monde UK has a British volunteer working at Kalma Camp - nurse Rachel Chant. She has been working in Sudan since May 2006.
MdM press office:
Florence Priolet - Annabelle Quénet
00 33 (0)1 44 92 14 31/14 32
infomdm@medecinsdumonde.net
www.medecinsdumonde.org