Panga cuts up in Mbale
Oct 06, 2002
By Vision Reporter<br><br>There is a panga epidemic in Mbale. It is the commonest cause of severe injuries that keep surgeons busy day and night at the Mbale Regional Referral Hospital. <br>“Most of the injury victims who report to Mbale Hospital are
By Vision Reporter
There is a panga epidemic in Mbale. It is the commonest cause of severe injuries that keep surgeons busy day and night at the Mbale Regional Referral Hospital.
“Most of the injury victims who report to Mbale Hospital are victims of panga cuts,†Wanyama Mbuya, an orthopaedic officer at the hospital, told the recent annual scientific conference of the Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health. “This has increased the workload for staff on duty,†he added.
From data that Wanyama presented to the conference, the panga outstrips the bullet, clubs, knives and road traffic accidents, as the leading cause of severe injuries in Mbale and the surrounding districts.
About a quarter of the patients with severe injuries who underwent operations in Mbale Hospital last year, Wanyama said, were panga victims. The remaining three quarters is shared between the many other causes of severe injury. Last year, 26.1% of the patients who had been severely assaulted were panga victims. In 2000, the figure was 29% and in 1999, it was 34.6%.
Most of the panga victims treated at the hospital came from Mbale and Sironko districts. A few came from Kapchorwa, Kumi, Pallisa, Tororo, and western Kenya.
Particularly towards Mount Elgon, land is scarce and someone can draw a panga for a piece as small as a sitting room. A man who catches an adulterer may find it easier to pull out a panga and hack the thief than to go to Police.
Other common reasons for panga attacks were domestic fights between husbands and wives, mob justice and violent robbery.
Wanyama said panga-wielding attackers stormed and hacked their victims mostly at night. Many of them bled profusely and died in the villages because they could not get transport to hospital at night.
He wants policy makers to ban carrying pangas in public unless they are wrapped. This, he hopes, could reduce dangerous use of the pangas.
He also appeals for ambulance services to ferry the panga victims to hospitals.
There is a panga epidemic in Mbale. It is the commonest cause of severe injuries that keep surgeons busy day and night at the Mbale Regional Referral Hospital.
“Most of the injury victims who report to Mbale Hospital are victims of panga cuts,†Wanyama Mbuya, an orthopaedic officer at the hospital, told the recent annual scientific conference of the Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health. “This has increased the workload for staff on duty,†he added.
From data that Wanyama presented to the conference, the panga outstrips the bullet, clubs, knives and road traffic accidents, as the leading cause of severe injuries in Mbale and the surrounding districts.
About a quarter of the patients with severe injuries who underwent operations in Mbale Hospital last year, Wanyama said, were panga victims. The remaining three quarters is shared between the many other causes of severe injury. Last year, 26.1% of the patients who had been severely assaulted were panga victims. In 2000, the figure was 29% and in 1999, it was 34.6%.
Most of the panga victims treated at the hospital came from Mbale and Sironko districts. A few came from Kapchorwa, Kumi, Pallisa, Tororo, and western Kenya.
Particularly towards Mount Elgon, land is scarce and someone can draw a panga for a piece as small as a sitting room. A man who catches an adulterer may find it easier to pull out a panga and hack the thief than to go to Police.
Other common reasons for panga attacks were domestic fights between husbands and wives, mob justice and violent robbery.
Wanyama said panga-wielding attackers stormed and hacked their victims mostly at night. Many of them bled profusely and died in the villages because they could not get transport to hospital at night.
He wants policy makers to ban carrying pangas in public unless they are wrapped. This, he hopes, could reduce dangerous use of the pangas.
He also appeals for ambulance services to ferry the panga victims to hospitals.