Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Mystery disease claims 34 in Goilala
By LIAMA ABAIJAH
A MYSTERIOUS disease is plaguing the people of Kunimaipa village in the Goilala district, Central province, and many lives have been lost.
Wesley Yalamu, from Kunimaipa and living in Port Moresby, told The National that he had received reports that the disease had killed many men, women and children.
He said the situation could get worse because they do not know what was causing the people to fall ill.
“Over the last three weeks, 26 adults died in Upper Kunimaipa and eight in lower Kunimaipa.
“This is from last week; we do not have the latest figures,” Mr Yalamu said.
“We aren’t even sure how many children have died from this sickness either.”
The Central provincial health office and the governor’s office, when contacted, said they had not received any reports of the disease or the deaths at Kunimaipa.
Local MP Mathew Poiya and Central Governor Alphonse Moroi could not be reached for comments.
Reported symptoms of the disease include fever, malaria, body weakness, abdominal pain and discharging of blood after urinating are just some of the reported symptoms.
Mr Yalamu stated that no one really thought seriously about it until people started dying in the upper and lower Kunimaipa.
He said many villagers had fled Kunimaipa into the city in fear of contracting the disease. “The aid post doesn’t know how to treat this and there aren’t any medicines as well. “Some people are leaving the village because they don’t want to get sick,” Mr Yalamu said.
He said requests had been made to the village counsellors to inform the local MP and the governor of the situation but no response had been heard from Mr Poiya, Mr Moroi and the counsellors.
“We want our Member and the governor to send a medical team over to the district to investigate what’s causing the disease, find out how we can prevent it and treat those who are infected,” he said.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/121108/nation8.php
credits Okieman@FW
By LIAMA ABAIJAH
A MYSTERIOUS disease is plaguing the people of Kunimaipa village in the Goilala district, Central province, and many lives have been lost.
Wesley Yalamu, from Kunimaipa and living in Port Moresby, told The National that he had received reports that the disease had killed many men, women and children.
He said the situation could get worse because they do not know what was causing the people to fall ill.
“Over the last three weeks, 26 adults died in Upper Kunimaipa and eight in lower Kunimaipa.
“This is from last week; we do not have the latest figures,” Mr Yalamu said.
“We aren’t even sure how many children have died from this sickness either.”
The Central provincial health office and the governor’s office, when contacted, said they had not received any reports of the disease or the deaths at Kunimaipa.
Local MP Mathew Poiya and Central Governor Alphonse Moroi could not be reached for comments.
Reported symptoms of the disease include fever, malaria, body weakness, abdominal pain and discharging of blood after urinating are just some of the reported symptoms.
Mr Yalamu stated that no one really thought seriously about it until people started dying in the upper and lower Kunimaipa.
He said many villagers had fled Kunimaipa into the city in fear of contracting the disease. “The aid post doesn’t know how to treat this and there aren’t any medicines as well. “Some people are leaving the village because they don’t want to get sick,” Mr Yalamu said.
He said requests had been made to the village counsellors to inform the local MP and the governor of the situation but no response had been heard from Mr Poiya, Mr Moroi and the counsellors.
“We want our Member and the governor to send a medical team over to the district to investigate what’s causing the disease, find out how we can prevent it and treat those who are infected,” he said.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/121108/nation8.php
credits Okieman@FW