Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Malnutrition hits Namutumba
Monday, 4th July, 2011
By Catherine Bekunda and Sylvia Nankya
OVER 15 children in Namutumba district have died of suspected malnutrition in the last one week, area MPs have said.
Residents of Nsoola village in Magada sub-county are the most affected.
Florence Mutyabule, the district Woman MP, told journalists yesterday that another 100 children are affected in the entire district. She said some five children were admitted at Iganga Hospital in critical condition.
The patients are reportedly pale, have severe burns on the body and bloated stomachs.
Mutyabule suspects the disease could be a result of malnutrition following hailstorms that destroyed food crops the area in May.
The hailstorm affected over 20 villages and destroyed hundreds of acres of crops and about 640 houses had their roofs blown off.
?It could be malnutrition because people do not have food,? Mutyabule said.
She said Namutumba Health Centre IV does not have the capacity to handle the cases, prompting referral to Iganga, which she said is far away.
Iganga Hospital medical superintendent Dr. Muhammad Lubega said preliminary findings show signs of kwashiorkor.
Kwashiorkor is severe malnutrition of young children caused by not eating enough proteins. It causes children to have bloated bellies.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/759387
Monday, 4th July, 2011
By Catherine Bekunda and Sylvia Nankya
OVER 15 children in Namutumba district have died of suspected malnutrition in the last one week, area MPs have said.
Residents of Nsoola village in Magada sub-county are the most affected.
Florence Mutyabule, the district Woman MP, told journalists yesterday that another 100 children are affected in the entire district. She said some five children were admitted at Iganga Hospital in critical condition.
The patients are reportedly pale, have severe burns on the body and bloated stomachs.
Mutyabule suspects the disease could be a result of malnutrition following hailstorms that destroyed food crops the area in May.
The hailstorm affected over 20 villages and destroyed hundreds of acres of crops and about 640 houses had their roofs blown off.
?It could be malnutrition because people do not have food,? Mutyabule said.
She said Namutumba Health Centre IV does not have the capacity to handle the cases, prompting referral to Iganga, which she said is far away.
Iganga Hospital medical superintendent Dr. Muhammad Lubega said preliminary findings show signs of kwashiorkor.
Kwashiorkor is severe malnutrition of young children caused by not eating enough proteins. It causes children to have bloated bellies.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/759387