Sleeping sickness hits Kalangala

Sep 07, 2010

Sleeping sickness has resurfaced in Kalanga district, according to reports from the ministries of health and agriculture. Dr. Abbas Kakembo of the vector control department in the health ministry said eleven-year-old Moses Muwonge, who tested positive of the disease is under-going treatment in Namun

BY GLADYS KALIBBALA
Sleeping sickness has resurfaced in Kalanga district, according to reports from the ministries of health and agriculture. Dr. Abbas Kakembo of the vector control department in the health ministry said eleven-year-old Moses Muwonge, who tested positive of the disease is under-going treatment in Namungalwe Hospital in Iganga district.

The boy was diagnosed with the disease at Mengo Hospital, before being taken to Namungalwe. Kakembo said Muwonge hails from Mugoye sub-county in Kalangala, where another case was reported and successfully treated in Namungalwe.

The revelation was made last week in Kampala at a meeting organised by the agriculture ministry to sensitise people about the dangers of tsetse flies.

Although tsetseflies have been on the increase in Kalangala, cases of sleeping sickness had not been reported for many years.

When the first case occurred, Kakembo and other officials rushed to screen people in Mugoye.

“This is a serious disease and the first case indicated that there was an infected tsetse fly in the area, so we intervened,” he said.

The official appealed to the public to take health matters seriously whenever there was an epidemic. He explained that Muwonge’s case was reported two weeks after the exercise, which screened over 2,000 people, was carried out, but no new case was found.

“The parents of the boy came for screening and left their children home yet everyone had been advised to go for the screening,” Kakembo commented.

Frederick Luyimbazi, the coordinator of Sustainable Tsetse and Tripanasomiasis Free Areas project, explained that Kalangala faces a challenge of retaining medical staff to care for the sleeping sickness vitims.

He said the some trained health wokers run away from the place because it it hard to reach. Tsetse flies cause sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals.

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