The Provisional Committee of the Sudanese Doctors’ Union has reported a rise in diphtheria cases to 15, including three deaths among children in the Al-Jarif area east of the capital Khartoum within a single week.
Dr. Adeeba Ibrahim Al-Sayed, an internal medicine and epidemiology specialist and a member of the committee’s Omdurman branch, said, “The committee has recorded 15 diphtheria cases, including three child deaths, in Al-Jarif, Khartoum, over the past week.”
Dr. Adeeba urged families to vaccinate their children against diphtheria, noting that the vaccine is part of the routine childhood immunization program. She also advised maintaining hand and personal hygiene, and avoiding crowded places if symptoms or suspected cases appear.
She called on the Ministry of Health to raise public awareness about the disease and to publicly announce reported cases to prevent further spread, appealing to international health organizations for urgent intervention to save Sudanese children’s lives.
According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), the decline in childhood immunization rates in Sudan poses a serious threat to millions of children, as vaccination coverage has fallen to its lowest level in 40 years.
