Mysterious viral infection hits South Sudan, linked to 10 deaths

Juba/New York, May 20, 2016 (SSNA) — The World Health organization (WHO) has announced that Haemorrhagic fever syndrome or Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) breaks out I South Sudan and that it has been linked to numerous cases after a WHO’s health regulatory agency, National IHR Focal Point (NFP) of South Sudan, which informed the World Health Organization about the outbreak of the syndrome.

NFP and the WHO interrelated the outbreak to a total of at least 51 suspected cases, including 10 deaths.

Report shows that 45 cases and 10 deaths were reported from Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Aweil North counties. The report also says six (6) cases were found in Aweil West County.

The NFP further explained in the report that the average age of most of the patients or people who died were under 20 and that symptoms of the VHFs include headache, fatigue, vomiting, fever, and unexplained bleeding.

NFP disclosed that samples from the infected patients were shipped to the WHO’s collaborating centers, National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, Uganda Virus Research Institute, and Institut Pasteur of Dakar in Senegal.

So far, the outbreak has been linked to three positive case of Chikungunya, Onyong-nyong virus, and one positive case of dengue virus.

The world health organization and its sister health groups say they have launched investigation to try to find other causes of the outbreak, adding that it suspects food intoxication and bacterial diseases.