The container holding over $17,000,000 of medicine is scheduled to reach Africa on February 15th. You can help loosen the grip of disease outbreak in Southern Sudan by ensuring it gets to where it is most needed!
The World Health Organization has described Southern Sudan as having a “confluence of the worst diseases on the planet”.
Three-quarters of the people are unable to access basic medical care and the weak health care system cannot cope with emergencies, such as the recent outbreak of “kala-azar”, a neglected tropical disease contracted through the bite of a parasite-carrying sandfly. The worst outbreak of this disease in 8 years wracks South Sudan today. The parasitic kala-azar kills approximately half a million people, second only to malaria. Symptoms include an enlarged spleen, fever, weakness, and wasting. It thrives in poor, remote and unstable areas. If untreated, kala-azar is fatal in almost 100 percent of cases within one to four months, children being at highest risk. However, there is up to a 95% success rate with treatment. The medicines currently in transit to Africa will be able to save people who would otherwise die of this wasting disease.
The severity of this outbreak is dwarfed by the wider medical humanitarian crisis facing the entire region, including chronic malnutrition, regular outbreaks of other preventable diseases, and insecurity that displaces communities and destroys lives.
The return of tens of thousands of Southerners from the north in anticipation of the upcoming January referendum for freedom and independence for the South is compounding the medical emergency. These returning refugees will be exposed to the other prevalent diseases, such as malaria, measles, meningitis, and tuberculosis. Their presence will add to the largest population of displaced persons in the world. This will place additional strain on already limited resources, including the lack of adequate food, clean water, and medicines.
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| Bob Kirkman with the Sudanese medical team in Nimule |
