Suspected Guinea worm outbreak reported in Kitgum

Sep 26, 2013

Doctors in Kitgum are investigating a report of suspected outbreak of Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) in the district ten years after World Health Organization (WHO) declared Uganda a guinea worm free country.

 By Dominic Ochola & Richard Otto

Doctors in Kitgum are investigating a report of suspected outbreak of Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) in the district ten years after World Health Organization (WHO) declared Uganda a guinea worm free country.
 
The suspected case was reported last week in Akara Labot-lwonga village, Pajong parish in Mucwini Sub County where a 72-year-old woman, Esther Lamwaka exhibited prospective signs and symptoms of the disease also called dracunculiasis.
 
Lamwaka who first suffered from the parasitic disease one and half decades ago explained that she  develops constant fever, swelling and pain on her left foot – very similar signs she once experienced.
 
“Our water sources are contaminated and i suspect the blisters on my foot may turn out to be guinea worm. 
 
This is also how i developed the earlier infection”, said Lamwaka.
 
GWD is an infection that affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa who drink water contaminated by fleas that host the dracunculus larva. 
 
By Dominic Ochola & Richard Otto
 
Doctors in Kitgum are investigating a report of suspected outbreak of Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) in the district ten years after World Health Organization (WHO) declared Uganda a guinea worm free country.
 
The suspected case was reported last week in Akara Labot-lwonga village, Pajong parish in Mucwini Sub County where a 72-year-old woman, Esther Lamwaka exhibited prospective signs and symptoms of the disease also called dracunculiasis.
 
Lamwaka who first suffered from the parasitic disease one and half decades ago explained that she  develops constant fever, swelling and pain on her left foot – very similar signs she once experienced.
 
“Our water sources are contaminated and i suspect the blisters on my foot may turn out to be guinea worm. 
 
This is also how i developed the earlier infection”, said Lamwaka.
 
GWD is an infection that affects poor communities in remote parts of Africa who drink water contaminated by fleas that host the dracunculus larva. 
 

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