By Lamin Cham
The Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit of the Ministry of Health and the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital have launched an investigation into the sudden emergence of a mysterious sickness affecting mainly small children from many parts of the country.
According to reliable medical sources, in the past few weeks and days, several children were received at various health centres with symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting and in several cases inability to urinate due to kidney malfunction.
Our source further revealed that almost fifty percent of those affected have died. According to our source, cases have been reported from different areas of the country prompting the authorities to start an urgent investigation into the problem.
The Standard contacted the Director of Health Services, Dr Mustapha Bittaye who confirmed the existence of an investigation to establish the cause or causes of the illness currently affecting small children from many parts of the country.
“The investigation is on and since we have a very efficient paediatric unit, there is an effective analysis of the cases with a view to finding out the cause or causes of it. There is no indication yet that it has a single cause. It could be a bacterial infection of different types but the investigation is on,” he said.
Dr Bittaye also confirmed that there have been fatalities mainly among cases that were late to have reported to health facilities. ”Our advice is for all parents to quickly take their children to health facilities if and when they see symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea in their children,” he said.
