Classroom becomes isolation ward as spectre of cholera haunts South Sudan

The hospital has turned them away. No-one knows if it's cholera or not.

It could take more than a week to find out. The health service has run out of testing kits, so the patients are treated with caution, banished to an empty classroom at the neighbouring school.

They lie on the floor with nothing. No blankets, no pillows, no beds. Just bare concrete.

Photo: Lokai Lopuke, aged two, lies on the floor as his parents watch over him. (ABC News: Sally Sara) ^[2]

Two-and-a-half-year-old Lokai Lopuke breathes heavily. Shallow puffs in and out.

His parents watch on, worried. His mother squats with her knees into her chest. His father lies down, resting his head on a small wooden stool. They are expecting to be here all night.

A few metres away, four-year-old Nakor Lotollo stares out on the scene with sunken eyes. She has a cannula strapped to the back of her hand with ragged white tape.

The vomiting and diarrhoea have stopped, but she is still seriously ill.

There are no doctors at the clinic so health worker Solomon Ohucholi is responsible for treating the patients.

"It started yesterday, Monday, in the morning. They brought one. One child who had started diarrhoea. We have not yet confirmed it is cholera. It is suspect. The four-year-old was brought this morning. Watery diarrhoea with mucus. That's why we are worried," he says.

"Cholera, when it comes as an outbreak, it will kill many people. It is because of dirty water."

A member of the local school board, James Obale, arrives at the classroom.

He wants the patients moved out of the school and back to the hospital. He fears the sickness could spread to other children.

"Of course I am worrying about the pupils of the schools," he says.

"This place is close to the school kitchens. When the flies from here go there it will affect all of the population, which is not good.

"So we would rather transfer them away, so they are isolated. Maybe they have some tents they can put somewhere far [away], for the sake of the pupils.

"I fear this sickness. It can kill."

The surrounding district of Kapoeta is also teetering.

It sits in the east of South Sudan — hit hard by malnutrition and on the brink of famine.

It's a brutally dry place in the best of times.

But harvests have failed for the past three years, and many people are now suffering from severe hunger.

Dozens of mothers cradling babies gather at the malnutrition assessment centre in the nearby village of Paringa.

Aid workers from Save the Children weigh and measure infants who are suffering from sickness and a lack of food.

Some of the mothers place helmets made from dried pumpkin skins over the heads of their babies to protect them from the scorching sun.

One-year-old twin girls Lokorot and Nachoto Lokora are underweight.

Their mother Naye is given packets of high-calorie peanut paste, known as Plumpy'nut, to increase their calories.

She has made the 12-kilometre journey on foot, with no shoes, carrying her daughters. She worries that when the peanut paste runs out, she will have nothing to feed her children.

"I can't even think — when I do I wonder where will I go for survival," she says.

"I am just waiting for the children to die."

Photo: Silvabetta Natabo waits patiently. (ABC News: Sally Sara) ^[17]

Topics: disasters-and-accidents^[18], diseases-and-disorders^[19], unrest-conflict-and-war^[20], south-sudan^[21]

First posted May 11, 2017 09:53:23

References

1. ^{^} Photo: Nakor Latollo lies on the ground as her mother and grandmother wait for the results of a cholera test. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
2. ^{^} Photo: Lokai Lopuke, aged two, lies on the floor as his parents watch over him. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
3. ^{^} Photo: A South Sudan school classroom has become a makeshift cholera isolation ward. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
4. ^{^} Photo: Lokai Lopuke's mother waits next to her son (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
5. ^{^} Photo: The view from the window of what used to be a schoolroom, but has become a cholera isolation ward. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
6. ^{^} Photo: Seriously ill Nakor Lotollo, aged four, was one of many at the cholera isolation ward. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
7. ^{^} Photo: Nakor Lotollo's mother and grandmother watch over the sick four-year-old girl. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
8. ^{^} Photo: Health worker Solomon Ohucholi fears there will be a cholera outbreak. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
9. ^{^} Photo: James Obale says placing the patients in a classroom could see cholera spread to students who are not sick. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
10. ^{^} Photo: Childrens' drawings in Kapoeta, South Sudan. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
11. ^{^} Photo: Children at a malnutrition assessment centre in Kapoeta, South Sudan. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
12. ^{^} Photo: The eastern parts of South Sudan are on the brink of famine. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
13. ^{^} Photo: Lokorot Lokora, a one-year-old twin, cries out for food in Kapoeta. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
14. ^{^} Photo: Infants are among those in South Sudan suffering severe hunger. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
15. ^{^} Photo: A hat made from a pumpkin protects a child from the harsh sun. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
16. ^{^} Photo: Naye Lokora walked 12 kilometres to get food for her twins Lokorot and Nachoto. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
17. ^{^} Photo: Silvabetta Natabo waits patiently. (ABC News: Sally Sara) (www.bing.com)
18. ^{^} disasters-and-accidents (www.bing.com)
19. ^{^} diseases-and-disorders (www.bing.com)
20. ^{^} unrest-conflict-and-war (www.bing.com)
21. ^{^} south-sudan (www.bing.com)