Health officials in Budaka district, Eastern Uganda say they are currently facing a stiff challenge in convincing local communities that what they perceive as a strange disease caused by witchcraft is actually malnutrition, which needs immediate attention
While speaking to the press at her office last Wednesday (5 October 2011), Dr Christine Wanzige noted that locals claim it’s not malnutrition but lwenyaza (which means ‘the disease acquired from eating fish’) which they say can only be treated traditionally by denying the sufferer certain foods like fish. She says many of them believe this disease is the result of individuals working on the coast in Mombassa, who they see as coming with evil spirits that are terrorizing the area.
Dr Wanzige says this is a myth as all the signs of severe malnutrition, like swelling of legs, peeling of the skin, diarrhoea, vomiting and high fever, are visible in most of the patients. She added that severe malnutrition can be managed at home or at a health center by either feeding a balanced diet or by giving food and milk products specifically designed to combat malnutrition such as plumpy nut, BP5, F75 AND F100.
So far, ten children have died yet hundreds are bed redden due to severe malnutrition. Some of the most affected areas in Budaka district include Kasoli, Lyama, Gadumere and Kyali, according to Dr Wanzige. She further noted that malnutrition has claimed a number of people’s livers in the area but locals insist that this is also the result of witchcraft.
Dr Wanzige says the most affected category of patients are those who have HIV since their immune system is more affected when not getting a balanced diet.
Officials from the Ministry of Health and the district team have embarked on a massive screening exercise to identify the homes most hit by the food shortage and need attention. The district was recently hit by drought, which destroyed all the food crops that were not mature for harvesting. Later it was hit by floods; this destroyed all the food crops that were still in the gardens leaving the locals with no food in their stores
James Mbulamoizi, a Lyama resident who recently lost his five-year-old son, is adamant that what killed his son was not malnutrition. I visited him at his home to find out what he thought might have claimed the life of his son. Mbulamoizi, in his late thirties, was sitting on the veranda of his grass thatched house with a bony dog lying a few meters away. He totally refused to believe that malnutrition killed his only son when he also has six daughters.
“Why is it that is only boys that are dying? [Other residents] Kafilla lost a son, Temitewo lost a son, I lost a son and many sick children in this area are boys. This disease has come to finish all our children,” Mbulamoizi said.