Diarrhoea is prevalent mostly among children under the age of five years in Kapoeta Mission Hospital according to the official in charge of facility.
Dr. Aburi Godfrey James says the cases on adults are rarely recorded, but with an exception of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, Radio Emmanuel reported.
“The most common here that you cannot fail to get in ten persons is actually diarrhea, we have recorded for the period of time they are mainly the children. What I mean the one under five and even up to the age of ten years, but most of them they are under five years children. Rarely do we get adults, but I can say like two or three in the week that you may see with adults exception of the group of people do have HIV infections because of immune suppression they are at the risk of gastrointestinal disorders which is mainly the diarrhea”, he explains.
The doctor says the facility has not recorded any mortality and that prevalent is due to poor sanitation and hygiene practices.
“Diarrhoea is common in under-five I think possibly is hand washing practices that are not yet well picked up in the community which I think is the one contributing and then a general hygiene of utensils could have been some of the things and then even cleaning of food items, I think these are the most common things in the community given the fact that may be the sources are not very close or access to water is not good or some time is just awareness we have to keep on continuous awareness program so that the people actually get to know that diarrhoea we should not aim at treating it but we should actually aim at preventing it but we should actually aim at preventing because these are purely preventable by proper hand hygiene”, he says.
The medic advises citizens to report to the hospital as one develops signs and symptoms of diarrhoea.
“My message to them is that let them keep practicing hand hygiene, wash their hands, wash the plates. If you happen to get fruits make sure you clean them before eating, and if any develop the symptoms come early so that we are able to be treated and then also the habit of littering of stools everywhere, dispose of waste should also be in a specific place”,
The doctor made the remarks on Friday at Kapoeta Mission Hospital.