Malaria increases in Unity State, medicine runs out

More than one thousand malaria patients arrive at Bentiu Hospital every week, far more than in previous years, the hospital director said.

Most of those affected are returnees, those forced to leave Sudan after South Sudan gained independence, Dr. Simon John told The Niles. Many are fleeing from ongoing conflicts raging in the border state.

Malaria has spread fast, especially among children under 10 years old and pregnant women. Many of those affected have been displaced by violence and are living near stagnant water. The hospital houses malaria patients from counties across the state, especially Leer County and Pariang County.

Also read: The hidden cost of malaria in South Sudan: $2 million and counting
by Esther Muwombi | in Economics | 02.11.2011In previous years the hospital registered fewer than ten malaria patients per day, sometimes fewer than two per day. Last year just 500 patients were affected with malaria in the whole year, a fraction of those who have contracted the potentially fatal condition so far this year.

Dr. Simon said most caught the disease after sleeping outside without mosquito net. Also accelerating the spread of the disease, stagnant water is common around the area, forming ideal breeding grounds for the disease-carrying mosquitos.

Maria Chuol, who is nursing her three-year-old daughter Agnes Chuol at the hospital, said her husband sold the mosquito net they were given by UNCEF.
He sold the mosquito for 15 SSP (US$ 5) to buy food for the family members, she said. Let me go to the market with this mosquito net to buy food for the hungry children. They can do without mosquito net, but they cannot do without food my husband said,” she said.

Due to high demand, medicine to treat the influx of patients is running out, warned Simon John.

Rebecca Nyuon a pregnant woman from Rubkona County said she has been admitted in the hospital with malaria but receives little treatment, because there are too many patients. She added she receives two malaria tablets per day, some days she does not get any treatment, she said.

Kuol Jal Ruot, statistics officer at Bentiu Hospital, confirmed the increase in both out patients and inpatients, saying the number is far higher than that of previous years.

Most of the more than five hundred malaria patients are elderly people or children. A few people have died of the disease, he said, warning that more deaths were likely given the lack of medicine supplies.

Sabino Andrew blamed government and UN agencies operating in the state for not responding quickly to the high rate of malaria in the state.
His office sometimes receives anti-malaria drugs from Juba, though they do not keep pace with the number of patients arriving at the hospital, Kuol added.

Sabino Andrew, the hospital’s chief executive officer said, the institution has been supplied by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNCIEF) in previous years, but the organisation had not provided medicine this year.

Sabino urged both the state and national authorities to focus on the state hospital, saying it is the only hospital treating people from across the state, including refugees from the extensive Yida camp.

Dr. Changkel Banak Riak the Unity State Minister of Health said people should not sell mosquito nets which are given for free to protect the pregnant women and children and anyone caught would stand trial, he said.