IDPs at risk of diseases as Hepatitis reported

Unless safe, clean water and better sanitation become more readily available in camps for displaced people in the troubled western Darfur region of Sudan, the people living there are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases like Hepatitis, health agencies warned. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which on Tuesday reported that an outbreak of Hepatitis E had killed 22 people, with 625 cases reported in Darfur between May and July, said that despite the efforts of relief agencies, "existing resources are insufficient to cover the basic needs of the IDPs [internally displaced persons]". "Without an immediate improvement in access to safe, clean water and better sanitation in these camps, disease could spread rapidly and lead to increased mortality," it added. Hepatitis E is usually transmitted through water contaminated with faeces. It kills five percent of those infected, but is especially dangerous for pregnant women. WHO said suspected cases of the disease had also been reported in East, North and West Darfur. The highest incidence had been reported in Morni IDP camp, West Darfur where preliminary analysis of epidemiological data had indicated 149 cases and eight deaths. Seventy percent of the cases occurred among women with a mean age of 24 years, while 75 percent of the fatalities were pregnant women, WHO said. "Refugees and IDPs in overcrowded camps are at highest risk of disease," WHO said. Fatality rates, it added, could vary from one percent to four percent, "but may be as high as 20 percent in pregnant women who are more susceptible to severe forms of the disease". WHO said field investigations had been planned to better understand "the epidemiology of transmission" in IDP and refugee camps settings, so that it could be brought under control.