Humanitarian crisis in Sudan: the collapsed health system threats the public and global health

Abstract

The ongoing war made Sudan a humanitarian crisis zone and the health system is a major causality. In April 2023, fighting broke-out countrywide after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, supposedly under the command of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), mutinied.1 Battles have initially sparked in the capital city; Khartoum, and rapidly exploded throughout the country, with both sides vying to control key locations including airports, armies bases and entry points. Currently, its intensively focused in Khartoum.1 This has adversely affected and paralyzed the health system. Particularly in the capital city, the health system is no longer functioning, with patients unable to access healthcare services including dialysis, follow-up for chronic diseases, diagnosis and treatment and emergency healthcare. Severe shortage in medical supplies, drugs, and blood transfusion is prevalent countrywide.2,3 With no petrol available and insecurity; ambulance services have also ceased functioning, leading to many severely injured and dead people left unattended. This was exacerbate by attacking and taking-over hospitals and the National Public Health Laboratory.2,3 In addition to the direct hit by weapon, everyone in the country has suffered from one or more of lack of food, water, power supply, network connection, extreme stress and panic attacks. Another major threat is under-developing, with millions forcibly displaced throughout the country and internationally, there is a high risk of local and international epidemics of infectious due to the sudden movements of people from endemic area (residents/temporally hosted) into novel areas/countries and vice versa.4 A swift actions needed to avoid local and international disasters. Sarah Misbah El-Sadig (Conceptualization [equal], Data curation [equal], Formal analysis [equal], Visualization [equal], Writing—original draft [equal], Writing—review & editing [equal]), Saria Osman El-Amin (Conceptualization [equal], Data curation [equal], Formal analysis [equal], Writing—original draft [equal]), Rahba Osman El-Amin (Conceptualization [equal], Data curation [equal], Visualization [equal], Writing—original draft [equal]), Ayman Ahmed (Conceptualization [equal], Data curation [equal], Formal analysis [equal], Visualization [equal], Writing—original draft [equal], Writing—review & editing [equal]), and Emmanuel Siddig (Conceptualization [equal], Data curation [equal], Formal analysis [equal], Visualization [equal], Writing—original draft [equal], Writing—review & editing [equal]) None declared. None declared.

Topics & Concepts