'Unprecedented' malaria outbreak in South Sudan

In a remote northwest corner of South Sudan, Theresa Ahok is in a hurry. The 35-year-old is from the village of Adiang and walked for an hour and a half before managing to flag down a truck to drive her and her sick son another hour to the hospital.

"I'm racing", she says," and I'm worried I won't get to the hospital in time." Her son Bakita is two and a half years old and has malaria. She gave him some anti-malarial medication at home but it didn't help.

 He then started convulsing and she knew it was time to make the journey into Aweil.


- Health24: Malaria
The city of Aweil is a patchwork of red dirt roads leading to a bustling town centre that has been a pocket of peace in a conflict ridden country for the past two years. It hosts a base for the United Nations Mission to South Sudan, a number of aid agencies and is home to the sole functioning public hospital with the only blood bank in the entire state of Northern Bahr el Ghazar.

A large section of the hospital is run by Doctors Without Borders in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and serves about 1.2 million people in what is South Sudan's poorest state.

Once Ahok and her son arrive, Bakita is taken into the ward and treated. "I like the level of care here", she says. "There has been a lot more malaria in my village this year than last year."

Malaria is endemic to South Sudan and is the leading cause of death and illness but this year Doctors Without Borders say the malaria outbreak is shaping up to be the most severe it has seen. While the United Nations has described it as "unprecedented".
Nearly 1.6 million malaria cases have been reported so far, according to the United Nations Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The number of cases in most areas has doubled, and in some quadrupled, compared to the same period last year.

The state of Northern Bahr el Ghazar is one of the worst affected. "For sure the malaria season has been huge this year," Claire Nicolet, the Project Manager for Doctors Without Borders in Aweil, told Al Jazeera. "Last year was huge already but this year has been even worse."

"Usually around December we would be reaching the end of the malaria season but we are still treating about 130 patients a week who have severe malaria", said Nicolet. "So this season is extending well into next year."