FIFTH REPORT - World Health Organization

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION 263
SUDAN
Population and other statistics
At the last census, taken in January 1956, the
recorded population of the Sudan, based on the results
of a sample survey, was 10 262 536. The mean population
estimates and other estimated vital statistics
for 1971 and 1972 were:
Mean population
Number of registered live births
Birth rate (per 1000 population)
Number of registered deaths
Death rate (per 1000 population)
Natural increase (%)
Number of infant deaths
Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births)
16
1971
087 000
700 000
45.0
300000
20.0
2.5
91 000
130.0
1972
16 489 000
742 000
45.0
330 000
20.0
2.5
96 000
129.4
The communicable diseases most frequently notified
in 1972 were: malaria (713 392), influenza (172 405),
meningococcal infections (4253), infectious hepatitis
(3574), diphtheria (1619), typhoid fever (957), smallpox
(827), relapsing fever (56).
Organization of the public health services
The overall responsibility for the health services in
the Sudan rests with the Minister of Health and
Social Welfare. The Permanent Under Secretary
the civil service head of the Ministry. He is assisted
by five deputies dealing respectively with preventive
medicine, curative medicine, finance and planning,
training and international health, and provincial affairs.
Each deputy has an assistant. The Ministry comprises
the following divisions, each headed by a chief: vital
and health statistics, smallpox, nutrition, industrial
medicine, medical commission, communicable eye
diseases, malaria, and medical stores. The teaching
and specialized hospitals in Khartoum, Khartoum
North, and Omdurman are run by directors, whose
functions it was planned to transfer to management
committees. The central research laboratory is headed
by a director.
At the provincial level, the provincial medical
officer of health is in charge of all health services in
his province. He is also a member of the provincial
executive council, a function that adds to his responsibility
because of the passage of a new Provincial
Administration Act that gives increased authority in
health administration to provincial authorities. The
provincial medical officer of health is assisted by an
asssistant medical officer of health, a provincial
public health inspector, a provincial medical assistant,
and a superintendent nursing officer.
The provincial authority is now responsible for
environmental sanitation, hospitals, health centres,
dispensaries, dressing stations, and child welfare
centres. The staff of these establishments is seconded
from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare,
which is still responsible for the technical supervision
through the provincial medical officer. Coordination
between the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
and the Ministry of Local Government is secured by
delegation of powers of both ministries to the provincial
medical officer of health. The health establishments
are mainly financed by the Ministry of Local
Government, the Ministry of Health and Social
Welfare providing a grant representing 20 % of the
total. Health plans, which are elaborated by the
provincial executive councils in collaboration with
the provincial medical officers of health, are submitted
for approval to the provincial authority and
subsequently to the Ministry of Health and Social
Welfare for scrutiny and technical evaluation and to
the Ministry of Local Government for financial
approval.
In each province there is at least one provincial
hospital, which until recently was run by the provincial
medical officer of health and is now administered by a
management board with the provincial medical officer
of health as chairman and the senoir medical officer
as secretary or executive officer. The district hospitals
are in the charge of medical inspectors, and the
dispensaries, located in rural areas, are run by medical
assistants. Dressing stations, which are the most
outlying medical units, are supervised by a male
nurse. Child welfare centres are run by health visitors.
Sanitation is the responsibility of a senior public health
inspector or a health officer, depending on the size of
the provincial executive council concerned. Sanitary
overseers or assistant sanitary overseers are responsible
for sanitation at peripheral health posts.
Hospital services
In 1972 the Sudan had 115 hospital establishments
with 13 962 beds (excluding the beds in the maternity
hospital), which is equivalent to 0.8 beds per 1000
population. Outpatient services were available at
the hospital outpatient departments; at 124 health
centres, staffed by medical assistants, nurses and, in
urban areas, sometimes by doctors; at 627 dispensaries,
which have the same staffing pattern as health centres;
and at 1393 dressing stations, staffed by male nurses
only.
Medical and allied personnel and training facilities
In 1972 the Sudan had 1168 doctors, of whom 1007
were in government service. The doctor /population