Locusts cause Sudan asthma deaths

Swarms can destroy crops in minutes

Eleven people have died in the past two weeks in central Sudan after a swarm of grasshoppers caused an asthma epidemic.

More than 1,600 people have been taken to hospital, health officials in the affected state of Gezira said.

Residents said the grasshoppers gave off a strong smell, which caused breathing difficulties.

The health officials said the outbreak had reached unprecedented proportions in the state capital, Wad Medani, Sudan's second largest city.

It was believed to be the first such outbreak in the area.

Last month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that crops in north Africa were under threat from swarms of locusts.

Awareness

Health officials in Sudan have set up a local committee to help contain the asthma outbreak, which its members attributed to a large increase in the numbers of the dark red locusts.

In a statement, they said the disease had reached its peak a week ago when some 500 cases had been admitted to a hospital in Wad Medani, 180 kilometres (112 miles) south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The committee has provided medication, oxygen and other equipment for the treatment of patients.

The area has been sprayed with insecticide since last week.

Health officials have also started an awareness campaign urging people to report breathing difficulties immediately.

An agricultural official in the worst-affected area was quoted by local newspapers as saying the asthma outbreak was linked to a hormone released by locusts during the current mating season.

'Deadly'

Apart from Sudan, outbreaks of locusts have also been reported in Mauritania and Niger observers feared they could spread across the northern half of the continent.

Desert locusts are normally solitary insects but when climatic conditions are favourable they can rapidly increase in number.

When they group, the young, wingless locusts - known as hoppers - march together in search of food.

As adult, winged insects they form swarms that can travel in tens of millions and travel great distances, crossing international borders in search of food.

They can devastate crops within minutes.

A major locust plague in 1987 to 1989 originated in western Sudan and spread as far as India.

Fao says a full-fledged desert locust plague has the potential of damaging the livelihood of a tenth of the world's population.