More than 600 dengue fever cases were recorded last month at Sinja Hospital in Sudan's Sennar state, according to the facility's medical director, Dr. Safaa Abdelrahim. She told Radio Dabanga that the situation has grown increasingly serious as patient numbers rise daily and medicine supplies run short.
Abdelrahim described the health situation in the city as "catastrophic," and said she has herself contracted the disease. She is trying to balance the rest and recovery she needs with her medical and administrative duties at the hospital, she told Radio Dabanga.
Why it matters
The figures from Sinja add to a picture of dengue spreading across several parts of Sudan, where the health system is already under severe strain. Radio Dabanga reports that the hospital has not recorded any deaths among patients treated on its wards so far, though Abdelrahim said that does not rule out the possibility that people have died outside the hospital.
Other outlets have reported outbreaks elsewhere in the country. Youlyou reported 500 dengue infections amid shortages of medicine and poor environmental sanitation. Al-Taghyeer reported deaths from the disease in Sennar state alongside urgent calls for treatment and disease control. Reports from Elnabaa Elwatany and Almaghrib Today described outbreaks in displacement camps in North Darfur, including in Tawila, where infections were reported to have passed 500 cases.
Staff working around the clock
Abdelrahim said medical teams at Sinja Hospital are working 24 hours a day to keep up with the growing number of patients. The hospital has set aside a ward to admit dengue patients whose condition requires them to stay overnight, she said. Its laboratory has also been equipped to carry out the necessary tests, and emergency treatments and fluids are being provided.
She said the hospital faces repeated difficulty in securing medicine because patient numbers are high and its stock is limited. Among the items the hospital administration has identified as urgently needed are intravenous fluids, paracetamol tablets and vitamin C.
On efforts to control the disease, Abdelrahim said she hopes the spraying campaigns that began in September, together with recent public health awareness drives, will help slow the spread of dengue and bring infection rates down.
She also described work by Sinja Hospital, coordinated with the health ministry and the Humanitarian Aid Commission and supported by Sennar state governor Al-Zubair Hassan, to provide medicines and tests free of charge to patients admitted to the dengue ward.
What to watch
Whether the spraying and awareness campaigns launched in September translate into fewer new infections in Sennar in the weeks ahead — and whether the hospital receives the intravenous fluids, paracetamol and vitamin C it says it needs.
