Rift Valley Fever Kills 164 in Sudan

GENEVA – An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Sudan has killed 164 people, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Rift Valley Fever is normally a mild disease in humans with a fatality rate of around one percent. But in patients who develop the hemorrhagic fever form, the fatality rate is around 50 percent, according to the U.N. health agency.

More than 221 people caught the virus over the last two weeks, bringing the total number of cases to 451, including those who died.

Most of the cases occurred in White Nile, Sinnar, and Gezira states in eastern Sudan, WHO said. Around two dozen cases were reported in Khartoum State, where three died.

WHO officials were alerted to the outbreak on Oct. 18, but only determined the exact nature of the disease in early November, according to the agency.

There is no treatment for the disease, which is spread to humans mostly through contact with the blood and organs of infected animals or from bites of infected mosquitoes.

WHO has said Sudanese officials were quick to alert the international community about the disease, which is essential to containing the outbreak and helping those affected.

Since 1930, when the virus was first isolated during an investigation into an epidemic among sheep on a farm in the Rift Valley of Kenya, there have been outbreaks in sub-Saharan and North Africa.