About five cases of hemorrhagic fever have been reported in Kadulgli town in Sudan’s South Kordofan, according to medical sources.
A source told Radio Tamazuj that about five children were taken to Kadugli Hospital, amid a media blackout due to a visit by the First Vice President Bakri Hassan Selah to the town today.
The visiting vice-president was expected to inaugurate health facilities in the area. Meanwhile, security agents allegedly refused a transfer of one of the suffering children to El Obeid Hospital for treatment.
This comes after similar reports in October of patients suffering from high grade fever and epistaxis (bleeding from the nose) in an oil-producing area of neighboring West Kordofan State.
Emails obtained from PetroEnergy E&P say the company took “serious precautions” after Field Medical Officer Dr. Samir Alkhair Mohamed reported cases of “Ebola virus or hemorrhagic fever cases” at Fula hospital in West Kordofan.
“The two cases are now isolated and receiving treatment as hemorrhagic fever till further blood investigation confirm diagnosis about the type of hemorrhagic fiver,” another company official wrote.
Alkhair the medical officer also wrote, “Two cases died in Mujlad as a result of hemorrhagic fever,” without elaborating, according to the correspondence obtained by Radio Tamazuj.
UN and World Health Organization officials in Sudan contacted by email and phone for comment on 22 October either declined to respond to calls or said they were unable to comment due to lack of information.
On 24 October, however, an oil company official in West Kordofan told Radio Dabanga that two people died from bleeding and fever in Muglad and another two were hospitalized in Fula, reiterating the same information contained in the mentioned company emails.
The disease remains unknown.
File photo: Kadugli town