By Ismael Kasooha
Residents of the fishing villages on Lake Albert in Kibaale district, western Uganda are demanding for government health workers to be posted to the area to contain a cholera outbreak.
“We are left to die because we can not afford to pay money to the private health workers [who] are the only health workers on the shores,” said Esau Opio, the secretary for health in Ndaiga sub county Kibaale district.
Cases around Lake Albert now total around 150 but no deaths had yet been recorded, Opio said. He added that a person who contracts cholera can consume over 45 bottles of the I.V fluids and the cost of administering the fluids into the person is very high, with a private health practitioner charging between 50,000 to 80,000 ($20-30) Ugandan shillings per person.
“Our people can not afford to pay these exorbitant fees yet we have nothing to do but to sell all our belongings to meet the cost,” said Opio.
However, Opio thanked the government for procuring the I.V-fluids and other cholera drugs.
Resident Denis Maberenga appealed to the government to stop delivering fluids without trained health personnel.
“Government needs to send health workers here to rescue us otherwise we shall continue dying,” he said.
Ndaiga sub county has one nursing assistant stationed at Ndaiga Health Centre II but where the cholera outbreak is at its most severe there is no government health worker.
Ndaiga sub county does not have a health assistant yet cholera is an annual occurrence in the area.
The affected areas are hard to reach as only four-wheel vehicles can reach the lake’s shores due to the terrible condition of the road in the middle of the escarpment. The cholera patients can not be transported from the lake’s shores due to the terrain of the area.
Uganda Red Cross Society has meanwhile pitched camp at the fishing villages to try and contain the rapid spread of cholera.
“We have set up an isolation centre to cut the spread chain,” said Issa Sunday the Red Cross branch manager in Kibaale. But the majority of cholera patients are being treated at their homes, which has contributed to the escalation of the spread.
The prime cause of cholera is lack of proper sanitation. According to Steven Banakora ,the community development officer at Ndaiga sub county, more than 90% of homesteads do not have latrines.
Banakora says that most people use the surrounding bushes and the lake waters, which has resulted in the outbreak.
the problem of latrines is throughtout Africa this is a wakeup call to all govts.
Thank u for the comment but you did not indicate your country.
Thank you Ismael for keeping the world informed about the suffering that people continue to endure as the result wreckless lifestyles. Cholera is avoidable and it only demands adopting simple hygiene and sanitation practices. Thanks again Ismael.