BMJ  2008;336:1093 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39577.475637.DB

News

Precarious peace has brought little improvement to health in southern Sudan, charity says

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

More than three years after warring factions in Sudan signed a peace agreement, "health needs in southern Sudan remain critical, and simmering tensions create a precarious security situation," Médecins Sans Frontières said last week. Its report was issued to coincide with a conference in Norway bringing together countries and organisations that donate to Sudan.

The charity says that it is "struggling to maintain its primary healthcare services while reinforcing secondary care and emergency outbreak response. People continue to die from preventable diseases or curable conditions because of the shortage of clinics, trained medical staff, and medicines."

The report continues: "Diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) continue to take a heavy toll. Outbreaks of meningitis, measles, and cholera are all too common, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, the result of years of war and no development."

It says that in southern Sudan 2053 . . . [Full text of this article]

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