Health services have started a “risk assessment” for public health, after one of the warring parties in Sudan seized a laboratory, in Khartoum, where samples of pathogenic organisms were keptsuch as influenza and cholera viruses, the World Health Organization reported today.

“The team on site, as well as biohazard management and biosecurity teams, are conducting a risk assessment.” said Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of the Health Emergency Management Program, at a press conference in Geneva.

“Technicians no longer have access to the lab, which means the lab is unable to function as a diagnostic and reference center. We also fear that the people who occupied the lab could accidentally be exposed to pathogenic organisms kept there,” said for his part the Secretary General of the Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The WHO is trying to collect more information, he added.

Yesterday, the WHO representative in Sudan, Dr Nima Said Abid, warned that the biohazard is “enormous.”

The WHO has not yet clarified whether the laboratory has been seized by the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan or the paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Initially it became known that there were samples of influenza, cholera and polio viruses in the laboratory. Today, Dr Olivier le Poulin said samples of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes Covid-19) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were also being stored. “Of course, we are working with our colleagues in this country to better understand the situation,” he stressed.

WHO expects the situation in Sudan to worsen

Tedros said that WHO expects “many more” deaths in Sudan due to disease but also because it is observed lack of adequate health services. Fighting between the Rapid Support Force and the army has left at least 459 people dead and more than 4,000 injured.

“In addition to the deaths and injuries in the fighting, the WHO expects that there will be many more deaths from epidemics because there is no access to food and water, because basic health services are underperforming,” Tedros warned.

In Khartoum, only 16% of health services are functioning, he added.

“The WHO estimates that a quarter of the lives lost so far would have been saved if there had been access to means to control the bleeding. But the doctors, nurses, paramedical staff are unable to reach the injured citizens and the civilians do not have access to the services”, he stressed.

Mike Ryan noted that the main danger for Sudanese today is the lack of clean water and vaccines.