Sudan’s health care system is collapsing and a refugee crisis is looming in neighboring countries following nearly two weeks of fighting between Sudan’s army and a paramilitary group.
Add to that the “high risk of biological hazard” as the World Health Organization warns that fighters have seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital, Khartoum. Experts have not revealed who controls the lab, which houses chemical and biological materials, but they are warning that the militants may be exposed to potential pathogens.
But Dr. Michael Ryan, who heads WHO’s health emergencies program, said in a press conference Wednesday that “the main biologic risks to humans in Sudan is the fact that there’s an ongoing conflict, there’s an ongoing war, and the denial of public health and health services to that population is what represents the major risks to health and the major risk of infectious disease.”