New York, Oct 28 2011 12:10PM
At least 720 people have died in South Sudan from a protracted outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease, and the number of deaths could be much higher, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva that more than 18,000 cases of the disease have been recorded in South Sudan since the outbreak emerged in September 2009, with children mostly affected.
The outbreak has since spread to other areas of the newly independent country, and the number of new cases so far this year is a third higher than the equivalent figures from last year, he added.
WHO is working with national health authorities to reduce the number of deaths in the outbreak, in part by increasing the number of health-care facilities providing treatment for the tropical disease.
Visceral leishmaniasis occurs in three clinical forms, and the current outbreak in South Sudan involves kala-azar, the most serious form.
Kala-azar, which is transmitted by the bite of sandflies, can cause death by attacking a person's internal organs and bone marrow and has a mortality rate of 95 per cent if it is not treated.
Daniel Dagne, a medical officer for WHO, said the number of deaths from the outbreak was likely to be under-reported in South Sudan, which has little infrastructure and numerous remote communities.
Oct 28 2011 12:10PM
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