South Sudan News

Juba, 24 January 2018 –The lack of safe water, functional toilets, hand washing facilities and waste management system in healthcare settings poses significant health risks to patients, healthcare workers and nearby communities.

Juba, 10 January 2018 – Following a report of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) outbreak in Thonabutkok village, Yirol East County on 28 December 2017, a multi-sectoral response in the context of one health was launched by the Ministry of Health, WHO and other experts from the human and animal health for an in-depth investigation to establish the cause of deaths in three people as well as reported deaths and abortions in domestic animals and wild birds.

Juba, 15 December 2017:  The World Health Organization (WHO) is expanding on its partners’ engagement mechanisms to address critical barriers in reaching vulnerable persons including women and children with life-saving interventions in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, where access and restrictions on movement severely hinder the ability of populations to get health services.

14 December, 2017, Juba: South Sudan has been polio-free since June 2009. However, it is still considered at risk for polio outbreak due to insecurity, population movements, along with recent polio outbreaks in the neighbouring countries.

In order to sustain the polio free status, reaching every child with life-saving polio vaccines, and strengthening acute flaccid paralysis surveillance remain core interventions.

Juba, 14 December 2017:  Cholera in South Sudan remains an important public health problem which has affected 21 571 people and resulted in 462 deaths since the onset of the outbreak on 18 June 2016. This has been the longest and largest outbreak in magnitude and geographical extent, its impact exacerbated by the protracted crisis, insecurity, displacements and declining access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Juba, 11 December 2017: With the aim to achieve the target of zero transmission, the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Programme (SSGWEP) was established in 2006 with 20 581 cases reported from 3 320 endemic villages. In November 2017, the country celebrated its first full year with no indigenous cases of the disease.

‘A terrible itching, blister formation and emergence of a long worm are the first signs and symptom of Guinea worm disease,’ says Mr Evans Liyosi, WHO Representative a.i. for South Sudan. 

Juba 11 December 2017: In South Sudan, cholera continues to hit communities already made vulnerable by disasters such as conflict and hunger catastrophe.

In 2017, South Sudan braced the most protracted and biggest cholera outbreak. The outbreak was first detected in July 2016 and since then over 21 000 cholera cases and 462 deaths (CFR 2.14%) have been reported from 27 Counties countrywide.

Juba, 1 December 2017:  With the theme “Right to Health”. ‘Everyone with the Right to Realize the highest attainable standard of Health without Stigma and Discrimination’, the national commemoration of the World Aida Day was officiated by H.E the Vice President, James Wani Igga on 1 December 2017 at Nyakuron Cultural Center in Juba.

Juba, 04 December 2017—Six million people in South Sudan—well beyond the half of the population (56%)— were estimated to be severely food insecure in September 2017, out of which 40 000 in humanitarian catastrophe. The current harvest season, between October to December 2017 is expected to reduce the number of people experiencing food insecurity to 4.8 million. However, the situation could worsen next year exposing multiple locations across the country to high risk of famine due to poor harvest.

Juba, 1 December 2017:  Every second, someone in the world needs blood. Blood transfusion is one of the therapeutic procedures performed during hospitalizations and undoubtedly helps patients who are injured, having surgery, receiving treatments or are being treated for diseases that affect the blood.