Highly infectious skin disease spreading in northern Sudan

Mothers wait at a malnutrition centre to register for food aid for their children in the Tiamushro camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Kadugli, South Kordofan state, on 17 June 2024 [GUY PETERSON/AFP via Getty Images]

A highly infectious skin disease has appeared in Al-Shamalia State in northern Sudan, the Health Ministry warned on Wednesday, explaining that the disease is likely caused by deteriorated environmental conditions created by torrential rains and floods.

The ministry said that some 260 cases of bacterial dermatitis had been recorded in the state, which is a highly contagious disease.

Symptoms include rashes on the face, back, hands or feet in simple cases while in severe cases it is accompanied by fever, skin ulcers and secretions.

The disease is transmitted by direct contact with the affected persons or using their belongings.

Earlier, the Sudanese Minister of Health, Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said for the second consecutive year, Sudan is in the grip of a cholera outbreak that killed at least 28 people in July.

Since 22 July, when the current wave began, 658 cases of cholera have been recorded across five states, World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Director, Shible Sahbani, told Reuters in Port Sudan.

Read: Cholera spreads as Sudan grapples with rains and displacement

With much of the country’s health infrastructure collapsed or destroyed and staffing thinned by displacement, 4.3 per cent of cases have resulted in deaths, a high rate compared to other outbreaks, Sahbani said.

Some 200,000 are at high risk of infection, he added.

About 12,000 cases and more than 350 deaths were registered in the previous cholera wave between October 2023 and May 2024, Minister of Health Ibrahim said, adding that there had been no major outbreak in the nine years before the war.

The current outbreak is centred in Kassala and Gedaref states, which host 1.2 million displaced people.

The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises and displaced more than ten million people in Sudan and beyond its borders.

The country is dealing with a total of five concurrent disease outbreaks, including dengue fever and measles.

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