Malaria gaining ground in Juba
Infections of the mosquito-spread disease are at their highest level since the start of the year, according to the Juba Teaching Hospitals.
I have no money to buy mosquito nets for my children.”
Linus Okeny the Deputy Director for Statistics said that 2,162 cases of malaria have been recorded in the city in November, affecting both children and adults. Of those, 82 people died.
Those most vulnerable to the infection are children, pregnant women and the elderly, Okeny said. Most at risk were children Simon Kenyi, a doctor at Alsaba Children’s hospital said, adding that 210 children were recorded with malaria since the start of the year. Of those, only 38 survived.
Most of the children brought in his hospital hail from villages far from Juba. Martha Lucia, from the malaria department of the Alsaba Children’s hospital, said at least four children die of malaria every week, mainly because their parents rush to hospital with their baby at the last moment, when it is too late to save the child.
Betty Anne the director of malaria in National Ministry of Health said that this spike in malaria hit all of South Sudan’s 10 states. Central Equatoria is worst affected, followed by Jonglei State and the Northern Bahr El-Ghazal State. The disease thrives in areas with poor hygiene and environmental conditions.
A demonstration on how to use mosquito nets.
Those affected say that poverty exposed them to the infection-carrying mosquitos. Rebecca Juan, who was among the South Sudanese who were forced out of Khartoum following secession, was with the malaria patients in Juba Teaching Hospital. She explained that she had lost two children to malaria this year and she is still nursing one of her youngest children who has malaria.
She and her family sleep without a mosquito net, she said: I have no money to buy mosquito nets for my children since I am returnee from Khartoum”. She blamed the government for the increase of malaria, saying that the government should have provided nets for the most needy.
Rina Nyadeng from Jonglei who brought her three years old boy James Ding Mading for malaria treatment in Juba Teaching Hospital explained that her state lacks proper medicine for malaria and doctors are in short supply.
Malaria spreads when communities leave empty bottles and broken pots around, providing place for mosquitoes breading, Deputy Director for Statistics Okeny said.
He instructed pregnant women to sleep under mosquito nets to avoid malaria infections, which spread to the unborn child.
