An outbreak of Rift Valley fever has killed dozens of people and infected more than 1,000 in Sudan’s Northern state, according to local doctors.
Doctors told the Guardian the disease has spread across the towns of Merowe, Al Dabbah and Karima, mainly among cattle herders.
However, the Sudanese government has so far denied there is an outbreak of the disease. On 10 October,
Mohamed Hamdan Hemedti, head of paramilitary unit the Rapid Support Forces and vice-president of the sovereign council, said the country was free of the fever. “We don’t have the Rift Valley fever disease in Sudan, we don’t have it at all,” he said at an event in Khartoum.
Dr Abdulhadi Gendeel, a former lab technician from a village near Merowe, said his uncle, 50, and brother-in-law, 27, had died of the disease, which can affect humans and animals. Both died within two days of developing symptoms, he said.
“My brother-in-law got sick first, and they thought it was malaria but it wasn’t,” Gendeel said. “After testing him three times, his situation got worse. He had kidney failure and needed a blood transfusion, so he was sent to Khartoum. But many hospitals refused to receive him … and at the end only one hospital agreed to treat him.”
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