|
|
Uganda: Hepatitis E Spreads to West Nile
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Lominda Afedraru
Kampala
Hepatitis E, a deadly disease that is causing havoc in the northern district of Kitgum has now spread to the West Nilev region.
Health Minister Stephen Mallinga told journalists that Hepatitis E, which was reported in the four parishes of Madi, Opei Sub-county in Kitgum late last year, has now spread to Yumbe District in West Nile and four other sub-counties in Kitgum District.
Dr Mallinga was on Friday giving an update of the action taken by the Ministry of Health to control Hepatitis E.
"During the last two months, Adravu Sub-county in Yumbe District has also reported cases among the Sudanese refugees, but fortunately, no more cases have been reported in the district," Dr Mallinga said.
Yumbe District Health Officer Alfred Yayi told Daily Monitor on Friday that so far 23 cases have been reported in Yumbe out of which four died.
Dr Yayi said all the cases were from a refugee camp where about 10,000 refugees from South Sudan are living.
He said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross have started repatriating the refugees.
Dr Yayi said so far about 3,000 refugees have been repatriated and that the district and the Ministry of Health and other partners are sensitising the residents on good sanitation practices to contain the disease.
Since last October, a viral disease that the WHO says has no cure, has been killing people in near the frontier with Sudan.
Dr Mallinga said number of Hepatitis E cases have increased from 1,109 last month to 1,262 and that 25 people have died.
About 81 per cent of the deaths have occurred among pregnant women.
Pregnant women are at a high risk of dying than other people because during pregnancy, the blood volume in the body increases by over 40 per cent and weakens the immune system which makes mothers susceptible to any illnesses including minor diseases.
Dr Mallinga said the weekly trends indicate that the number of cases continue to go up due to increased contamination of water during the rainy season. He said during the last one week, 156 new cases have been reported, but one person died.
Hepatitis E is a viral disease transmitted through eating or drinking water or food contaminated with faeces. Some of its symptoms include fever, dark yellow urine and yellow eyes.
The transmission is similar to that of other diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and dysentery. It is very common in areas with low latrine coverage, inadequate safe water and poor personal hygiene.
Dr Mallinga said water testing in the affected areas has revealed that 32 per cent of wells are contaminated with human waste.
At the household level, 75 per cent of the household clay pots used to store and collect water are contaminated.
He said communities are being mobilised through public education meetings, home visits, and radio talk-shows among others.
|
More pit latrines and safe water sources have been constructed so that people can stop using contaminated water.
Dr Mallinga also said the Health Ministry has remitted an additional funding of Shs25million to Kitgum to help the district cope with the limited number of staff in health facilities. The Ministry is providing families with jerricans, which cannot easily be contaminated.
Investigations done by the Ministry of Health have revealed that communities using pots to store drinking water are at a higher risk of getting infection.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
