FILE: A woman and her baby wait for aid assistance with others in Old Fangak

WHO says it has delivered medical emergency kits, cholera investigation kits, and WASH supplies to Kuerdeang health facility in Fangak State.

This is after the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization completed a clinical investigation of suspected diarrheal disease outbreaks in Fangak State.

The supplies will last for three months.

Last month, over 300 suspected cases of acute watery and bloody diarrhea with two deaths were reported in the remote village of Kuardeang Payam.

As a rapid response strategy, local health organizations on the ground collected two laboratory samples for investigation, that both turned negative for cholera.

However due to the growing number of suspected cases, the ministry of health and WHO dispatched a multi-disciplinary team comprising of clinicians, epidemiologists, and WASH, laboratory, and risk communication experts to the affected area.

The team had gone to determine the magnitude of the suspected outbreak, the size of the population at risk, identify factors fueling the spread, and initiate response and control measures to prevent further spread.

The joint mission established that the community with “a total population of 6,000 people have a shortage of safe drinking water and limited access to essential health care services.”

The experts further found out last polio and measles vaccination campaign was provided two years ago by MSF. The team collected seven stool and three water samples from the water sources and conducted health education on the causes of diarrheal disease, prevention, and control.

With the coming of the rainy season, WHO said: “efforts are underway to vaccinate more than 1 million people at risk against cholera in transmission hotspots as a precautionary measure.”

Although diarrhoeal alerts are being reported, South Sudan has been cholera-free since the end of its longest and largest cholera outbreak in December 2017.