Vaccination campaign against cholera begins in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese Ministry of Health said Saturday that a vaccination campaign targeting more than 1.4 million people against cholera kicked off in eastern and northern parts of the country.
“A round of response to the ongoing outbreak of cholera was launched this (Saturday) morning in three states, including the River Nile (in northern Sudan), Kassala, and Gedaref (in eastern Sudan),” the ministry said in a statement.
The campaign aims to vaccinate 1,407,546 people aged one year and above and will continue until Thursday, it said.
“The campaign is one of the interventions to reduce the disease burden and the degree of risk, which limits both infections and deaths,” Amal Mahmoud, a representative of the ministry’s healthcare department, said in the statement.
Meanwhile, Ismail Al-Adani, director of the Expanded Program on Immunization at the ministry, said more doses of cholera vaccine will arrive on Oct. 24.
The ministry said on Oct. 5 that it had received 1.4 million doses of the cholera vaccine provided by the international organization GAVI, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Sudan has been ravaged by a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces starting in mid-April 2023. Since the outbreak of the conflict, epidemic diseases such as cholera, malaria, measles, and dengue fever have spread, leading to hundreds of deaths.
The Sudanese health ministry has so far reported 25,037 cases of cholera and 702 related deaths.
On Friday, UNICEF warned on social media platform X that 3.1 million people, including 500,000 children under 5, are at risk of cholera in Sudan. ■