Cholera outbreak in Sudan kills 40 in a week

The "worst cholera outbreak in years" has killed at least 40 people in the last week in Sudan, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

- Kat Lay Global health correspondent

Overwhelmed medical centres were resorting to treating patients on mattresses on the floor, MSF said, as the country's two-year civil war aids the spread of the disease.

Sylvain Penicaud, MSF's project coordinator in Tawila, North Darfur state, said families in displacement and refugee camps often had no choice but to drink dirty water, the main cause of cholera.

"Just two weeks ago, a body was found in a well inside one of the camps. It was removed, but within two days, people were forced to drink from that same water again," Penicaud said.

Sudan's cholera outbreak was first confirmed by the federal ministry of health a year ago, and there have since been more than 99,700 suspected cases and more than 2,470 related deaths.