Day: February 26, 2023

GENEVA— World Health Organization (WHO) experts have expressed their concern after two cases of humans catching H5N1 avian flu were confirmed this week. During a virtual press conference, WHO Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention Sylvie Briand said the situation was “worrying.”

The two cases were reported in Cambodia, where local authorities are in contact with WHO experts to jointly decide on the next steps to handle the crisis, which has led the international agency to reassess its parameters regarding the malady’s threat to humans. The conclusions reached earlier this month are now up for review.

On Thursday, Cambodian authorities reported the death of an 11-year-old girl from the H5N1 virus and began testing 12 of her contacts. Her father, who had shown symptoms, also tested positive for the virus, it was reported.

“The global H5N1 situation is worrying, given the wide spread of the virus in birds worldwide and the increasing reports of cases in mammals, including humans,” Briand said. “WHO takes the risk of this virus very seriously and urges all countries to intensify surveillance,” she added.

It is not yet clear whether human-to-human transmission had occurred or whether the two cases were due to the “same environmental conditions.”

On Thursday, Cambodian authorities reported an 11-year-old girl from Prey Veng province had died from H5N1, with subsequent testing of 12 of her contacts revealing that her father also had the virus.

“So far, it is too early to know if it’s human-to-human transmission or exposure to the same environmental conditions,” Briand said from Geneva.

“The global H5N1 situation is worrying given the wide spread of the virus in birds around the world and the increasing reports of cases in mammals including humans,” she added. “WHO takes the risk from this virus seriously and urges heightened vigilance from all countries.”

Earlier this month, the WHO assessed the risk to humans from H5N1 bird flu as low, although its director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the recent spillover to mammals needed to be monitored closely.

“Since H5N1 first emerged in 1996, we have only seen rare and non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans. But we cannot assume that will remain the case, and we must prepare for any change in the status quo,” he said.

Bird flu is a highly infectious strain of avian influenza A virus that can cause severe respiratory disease and death in birds. While it has caused outbreaks before, the current epidemic has led to the devastation of avian populations around the world, including wild birds and commercial poultry.

From January 2003 to January 2023, there have been 868 cases of human infection worldwide, 457 of which were fatal. However, only six of these cases, and two deaths, occurred since the start of 2021.

Leading experts on influenza met this week to discuss the threat posed to humans by H5N1. The group of scientists, regulators, and vaccine manufacturers meets twice a year to decide which strain of seasonal flu to include in the vaccine for the coming winter season, in this case for the northern hemisphere.

”We are more prepared (than for COVID-19), but even if we are more prepared, we are not yet prepared enough,“ Briand said. ”We need to really continue the efforts for a flu pandemic.”

Experts have been tracking H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b since it emerged in 2020 and recent reports of mass deaths in infected mammals from seals to bears, as well as potential mammal-to-mammal transmission on a Spanish mink farm last year, have raised concern.

Several companies that produce seasonal flu vaccines can also make pandemic flu vaccines, it was reported. GSK and CSL Seqirus are already working with the United States Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to test shots based on one of the closely related strains. Having these strains ready could save about two months in the development of a vaccine, Briand said.

Source: Nam News Network

KALMA (Sudan)— In Sudan’s sprawling Kalma camp for the displaced, Ansaf Omar lives with the gut-wrenching guilt of losing her toddler to a food crisis that has hit millions of people nationwide.

“I am severely malnourished so I couldn’t breastfeed him,” said Ansaf, 34, a month after her one-and-half-year-old child died in Kalma camp just outside Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur state.

“I took him everywhere — hospitals, treatment centres, but he died in the end,” she said.

Desperate mothers like Ansaf battle daily around Kalma to feed their frail and hungry children, many of whom are severely malnourished.

Sudan is one of the world’s poorest countries, with one-third of the population — at least 15 million people — facing a growing hunger crisis, according to United Nations figures.

Nearly three million of Sudan’s children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, the UN says.

“Over 100,000 children in Sudan are at risk of dying of malnutrition if left untreated,” said Leni Kinzli, head of communications in the country for the World Food Programme (WFP).

Nationwide, one-third of children under five are “too short for their age”, and nearly half of Sudan’s 189 localities have a “stunting prevalence more significant than 40 percent”, according to the Alight aid group.

It said that at least 63 children were reported to have died from causes related to malnutrition at Alight facilities in and around Kalma in 2022.

Sudan grappled with chronic hardships under the regime of Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019. His three-decade rule was marked by internal conflicts, government mismanagement and punishing international sanctions.

The restive Darfur region was the scene of a bitter civil war that broke out in 2003, pitting ethnic African minority rebels against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

Economic troubles deepened following the Covid-19 pandemic and a 2021 military coup which derailed a post-Bashir transition and triggered cuts to crucial international aid.

Some 65 percent of Sudan’s people live under the poverty line, according to a 2020 UN report.

Food insecurity is not new to the residents of Kalma, Darfur’s largest camp and home to some 120,000 people displaced since the 2003 conflict erupted in the country’s arid western region.

But residents say conditions have worsened as economic hardships kept rising and sporadic bouts of deadly violence continued.

Alight’s nutrition centres in Kalma saw a “dramatic increase on admissions to and demand on its emergency nutrition services” in 2022, according to the group’s country director, Heidi Diedrich.

“Kalma stabilisation centre newly admitted 863 children in 2022, an increase of 71 percent from 2021,” according to Alight.

“The number of deaths at the stabilisation centre increased by 231 percent in 2022, all children aged six months and above.”

Outside one nutrition centre in Kalma, 38-year-old Hawa Suleiman cradled her sleeping infant, hoping to find food for the child.

“We have nothing at home. We sometimes go to sleep hungry,” she said.

In recent years the WFP has halved food rations for internally displaced people in Kalma “due to funding constraints”, said Kinzli.

The lack of funding — in part due to global economic decline following Covid-19 and the Ukraine crisis — coupled with rising humanitarian needs puts the WFP in “an impossible situation where we have to choose who receives support and who does not — it’s heartbreaking”.

The UN has reported a 35 percent deficiency in the production of sorghum — a staple food in Sudan — during the 2021-2022 harvest season.

Nouralsham Ibrahim, 30, says she could no longer rely on aid to feed her five children.

“We try to make some money working the fields outside the camp, but it barely covers one day,” she said.

“Even the bread is too expensive.”

For others like Ansaf, venturing out of the camp in the troubled Darfur region, where ethnic violence still breaks out sporadically, is risky and rarely worth it.

“We are not left in peace when we get out to work,” said the woman who makes just 500 Sudanese pounds ($0.85) a day when she works in the fields.

“Women and girls get raped… and men get killed.”

The Darfur conflict — which left 300,000 people killed and 2.5 million displaced — may have largely subsided but ethnic violence can still break out over access to water, land or cattle.

In 2022, clashes killed nearly 1,000 people in the country, including in the Darfur region, according to the UN.

“We are very tired,” said Nouralsham. “We scramble here and there to get food but we need help.”

Source: Nam News Network

Abdel Rahim Daglo Second Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Sunday ruled out the possibility of fighting between their forces and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).

Recently, the Sudanese army’s top leaders repeated regular calls to integrate the paramilitary forces in the regular army as they are annoyed by his dissonant statements against their position on the framework agreement.

Media reports said the RSF mobilized its troops in Khartoum State where new batches arrived from Darfur and other areas to the capital where their commander is expected to return in the coming days from the United Arab Emirates.

Addressing, his troops at the RSF headquarters in Khartoum, Daglo referred to the army commanders’ statements about the RSF. He said the media recently reported several statements aiming at distorting the RSF image and destroying their morale and pushing them to carry out reckless actions.

“The reason for this is because you are on the right track: protecting the homeland and defenceless people,” he said.

The second commander further pointed out the positions of RSF from the former regime saying its commander has a famous position before April 11, 2019, in support of the Sudanese revolution. Also, he added that he had a “great position” after the October 25 coup, and has supported the framework agreement.

“We will never change our positions and we will not back down from them. We are with the one army, we are with reform. This is a pledge we have made to the Sudanese people and we will not break it,” he stressed.

On April 9, 2019, Hemetti stated that his troops would never disperse the sit-in of the protesters outside the army command. His position encouraged other generals including the head of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to oust General Omer al-Bashir on April 2019.

Since then he supported al-Burhan to get rid of the Islamist generals in the army.

The second commander, however, reassured that no clash would occur between them and the army.

“It is impossible for your brothers in the army to raise weapons in your face, or for you to raise weapons in their face. We are all one hand to build our dear homeland and return it to its normal position,” he said.

Before Daglo’s speech, the RSF troops displayed military vehicles, including heavily armed four-wheel drive vehicles and armoured vehicles.

On February 25, General Yasir al-Atta, a Member of the Sovereign Council, spoke about the need to integrate the RSF into the army. In addition, he said that its leader owns a private army to protect his business and economic activities.

Source: Sudan Tribune