By Ismael Kasooha
Over 40 children in Kibaale, in western Uganda have died in the last month leading village leaders to clash with doctors as to what has caused the deaths.
Reports from Kikora parish, Kakindo Sub County where the deaths have occurred h indicate that the children who died displayed symptoms including read eyes, skin rash and high fever.
Village chairpersons Musa Byaruhanga, Godfrey Tindyebwa and Clement Bingi said the situation may run out of hand if there is no urgent attention. According these leaders, the most affected villages are Ntebe where 10 children have so far died. There have been eight deaths in Nyakatoke, five in Rutoma, 12 in Kadiki and six in Nyakafnjo.
Village leaders believe the disease is a measles outbreak resulting from a lack of vaccines. But doctors contradict this, saying the children have died from malaria.
Dr. Dan Kyamanywa, the district health officer in Kibaale, said more than 30 children were admitted at Kakindo health centre IV presenting similar signs recently and were diagnosed with malaria in its advanced stages.
He added: “These children develop malaria and their parents do not treat it early enough and end up dying. The disease is not measles as alleged by the village leaders, and parents need to rush their children to the nearest health centre for treatment within 24 hours of onset.”.
Clement Bingi, the Ntebe village chairman, said: “We had no measles vaccines at out outreach immunization post for some months and this could be the cause of the sudden deaths.”
He added that even during the last mass polio and measles immunization campaign, other children were not immunized because there were not enough vaccines.
“Government should organize another mass immunization campaign to serve other children that missed out on immunization,” he added.
Bingi said another issue is that some parents are using local herbs to treat their children because they believe children with measles are not supposed to be given conventional medicines especially injections.
Thank you Kasooha for this important article don’t give up.
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