- KHARTOUM (Reuters) -- Eleven
people died and thousands were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties
after a swarm of grasshoppers invaded a town in central Sudan, the government-owned
Al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Saturday.
-
- The paper cited health authorities in Wad Medani, capital
of the central al-Jezira state, as saying an epidemic of what they considered
to be asthma had afflicted 1,685 people since October 22, all of whom had
since been cured. The authorities also said 11 people had died from the
breathing difficulties.
-
- "The appearance of the epidemic is linked to the
unprecedented increase in the grasshopper insects," the daily quoted
the health authorities as saying.
-
- Resident Joseph Mogum in Wad Medani, about 110 miles
southeast of the capital Khartoum, said the grasshoppers gave off a strong
smell which caused breathing problems.
-
- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
said on October 21 that swarms of locusts were threatening crops in northeastern
Sudan, Mauritania and northern Niger, but it was not clear if it was the
same species that was affecting Wad Medani in central Sudan.
-
- Mogum said the grasshoppers were smaller than the usual
species that appear during the rainy season in Sudan and destroy vegetation.
-
- Heavy rains in Africa's largest country over the past
three months have caused floods that have killed at least 20 people.
-
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=3736593
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