Fighting deadly diseases in Darfur, Sudan

Main Category: Liver Disease / Hepatitis
Article Date: 16 Aug 2004 - 12:00 PDT


In camps for internally displaced persons across the Darfur region of Sudan, the sanitation situation is grim. Children, women and men live, eat and sleep alongside their sheep, goats and donkeys. Besides the dirt and animal excrement that accumulates, there are not enough latrines or easy access to soap and water for the tens of thousands of displaced people currently living in the camps.

These perilous conditions put the children of Darfur at high risk for catching dysentery, cholera and hepatitis - all deadly killers.

And one of these killers has already struck - the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières has reported sixty cases of Hepatitis E in the Morni camp last week, and additional cases have been reported in the Krinding, Ardamata and Dorti camps.

As Hepatitis E is mainly transmitted through oral-fecal contamination, hygiene education and safe water is key to stopping this disease and is a top priority for UNICEF and its partners.

"Although the rainy season has started, access to safe water is still a problem. We've been working for two weeks on a health and hygiene education campaign for the IDPs [internally displaced persons]" said Sandrine Martin, a UNICEF assistant communication officer in Darfur. "We are training people in the camps to teach others about the importance of hand washing and use of clean water."

In response to this need, UNICEF and its partners have created a Health and Hygiene Education programme (HHEP), which is being implemented in Darfur's overcrowded IDP camps. The purpose of the programme is to introduce the people in the camps to the importance of safe hygiene and sanitation practices even under dire circumstances, like those in many of the camps.

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