Khartoum, Feb 22(Darfur24) After Kaltum lost two of her sons within a week due to measles, among 20 children from the Fanga area, 70 km south of El Daein city, and infecting more than 100, she secretly went to the nearest health center to her district, looking for a treatment to save the lives of the rest of her three children , after despairing of the common herbal remedy in her community.
Kaltum Sennin asked the health assistant in the Abi Sneidra area of Al-Firdous locality, East Darfur, to treat her children from measles, on the condition that he does not tell her husband that she took treatment from him, because her husband believes like others in his community that people with measles will die if they take them. A dose of medical drugs, as the people of the countryside and Bedouins in the states of Darfur have since ancient times treated measles patients by drinking warm water while clapping some trees.
Inadequate vaccination campaigns
The Executive Director of Al-Firdaws Locality Hamdan Ishaq Al-Masry attributed to Darfur 24 the spread of the disease among children in the locality to the irregularity of vaccination campaigns against the six childhood diseases in areas far from the local presidency, despite the provision of financial support centrally and globally through the World Health Organization, in addition to that if the vaccination team reached Villages will not find children because of wandering, grazing and the pursuit of pasture and water.
Beliefs that exacerbate the situation
In the event that the disease appears in the area, the people hide the patients for fear of knowing the government is forcing them to take medical drugs, and they believe that measles is not treated with medical doses, and that if the patient takes any treatment, he will die immediately, and the people also refuse to provide a meal to the patient Because they believe that good food also causes the death of the measles sufferer, so they use tree leaves and millet starches.
History of measles in the area
The Ministry of Health in East Darfur said in a statement that the area has a history of the disease, as it appeared in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021 and in February 2022 AD.” In the locality, she said that complications and malnutrition of the injured led to a high number of deaths among children.
Weak health structures
The state’s Ministry of Health acknowledged the weak health infrastructure in remote villages, where there is only one health cadre at the level of a health assistant, in addition to the irregular vaccination operations, and stated that to stop the measles re-emergence, a fixed immunization unit must be established in the health unit in the region, and a working refrigerator Solar energy to preserve medicines and drugs, in addition to developing a plan for preventive vaccination of villages, targeting all children under the age of 15
Conditions improved after the intervention
The ministry of health indicated that most cases improved after taking vitamin A, antibiotics, intravenous fluids, oral rehydration salts, zinc, and heat relievers, at a time when it intensified the survey in all villages to search for new or malnourished cases.