By Tabora Bojang
The latest situation report from the national task force against kush shows a 20 percent increase in clinical cases and seven new deaths linked to the deadly drug in the last three weeks.
According to the task force, the drug claimed about 11 lives in the past four months with a fatality rate of 9.7 percent.
“There have been 113 cases reported from 44 communities within six districts in The Gambia with Bakau accounting for the highest, 7 percent, Jabang and Lamin 5 percent, and Sukuta and Tallinding, 4 percent.
About 96 percent of all the cases were males with 50 percent of them below 22 years of age.
It further reported that common symptoms are restlessness, swollen tongue and lips and drooling saliva with 52 percent of the cases having all major four symptoms.
The team reported that there has been an upsurge in cases since the end of February to June 2024 and that reasons for the sudden upsurge are not established yet but it may not be unconnected to festivities.
The task force reported that a total of 107 Gambians and non-Gambians were intercepted including nationals from Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry with a total of 6.03 kilograms of kush.
