Local authorities in Jonglei State’s Duk County said a suspected cholera outbreak has claimed six lives and 11 others are hospitalized in remote parts of the county.
The county commissioner, John Chatim Rue, told Radio Tamazuj that reports of fresh cholera cases started emerging in a fishing island over the weekend.
“Over the past 4 days, we started receiving fresh cases of cholera from the swampy villages of Mandova, Machar, Mayen, Malou, and Majok. So far, a total of seven cases, including six deaths, have been reported,” he said. “What makes this outbreak concerning is that these incident scenes are cut off from the rest of the county by road because they are fishing islands.”
“Our appeal is that our state health ministry and health partners should address this health issue,” Commissioner Chatim added.
Reath Koang, the state health ministry director general, said they are aware of the suspected outbreak and that samples have been collected and sent to Juba for a confirmatory test.
“There have been suspected cases of cholera from Duk, with patients presenting with acute watery diarrhea and vomiting. We collected samples and are expecting confirmation from tests,” he said. “For now, we want residents to take precautionary measures by boiling drinking water, avoiding open defecation, and observing sanitation as we treat these as suspected cases.”
He said they are arranging supplies to respond to the suspected outbreak.