Moreguina Health Centre in Abau District, Central Province is now stressed to its limit dealing with a dengue outbreak and high numbers of diarrhoea cases for 3 months now.
OIC Ravu Kapa stated that there is a major outbreak of dengue in Abau district, especially Moreguina and the surrounding villages since the month of August till present.
He said the health centre has received and treated almost 300 dengue cases.
“Dengue outbreak is not the only problem faced by the health centre, within this same period of time we have received high numbers of diarrhea cases also,” said Mr Kapa.
Mr Kapa highlighted that in August the health centre recorded about 23 diarrhoeal cases, in September 34 cases and just the beginning of this month the health centre has recorded about 30 cases.
“I have only 3 health workers plus myself and imaging the stress we are going through, working day and night trying to contain the outbreak as well as identify what is causing diarrhoea,” he said.
“It’s too much workload, but we had to put our foot down so that we do not have to record a death from all the patients that come in seeking our help.”
He also stated that both the in-patient wards and the outpatient court are full with patients admitting at the health centre.
The health centre is currently doing assessment on the dengue situation and is keeping a tab on the numbers of patients coming in, however the situation is slowly going down and that is a positive sign said Mr Kapa.
However diarrhea emergency on the other side is a bit of worry because majority of the patients coming in and admitting at the health centre are infants under the age of 1.
Merani Village has the highest number of diarrhea cases, mostly babies, but there could be more.
“We are doing our best to establish the cause of diarrhea at this time; and water has being ruled out because if water was the cause then most adults would also be having diarrhea.”
“Hopefully we should identify the cause of the diarrhea madness and try to put a tap on it,” said Mr Kapa.
The health centre can only give help were it can with only 4 health workers to hundreds of patients, they are trying their best under pressure.
Mr. Kapa is urging all the parents to practice proper hygiene when handling food and water for infants and to take care of their kids properly to prevent them from getting diarrhea.
He also urges everyone to clear off swamps, cut down tall bushes, clear little water holes and sleep under mosquito nets to prevent dengue.