Health crisis in Far North Region: Hospital negligence killing several kids

The region which is not new to crises of different sorts is currently battling with effects of bad weather conditions.

The constant rains in the region have brought in flood waters into the area which have led to numerous human and collateral damage.

The inhabitants of the Far North Region are equally dealing with a serious health crisis that has led to the death of several children in the region from malaria.

Inhabitants of the region have complained of the neglect by public hospitals and a general case of bills being inflated at these hospitals which have caused them to sometimes resort to roadside treatments which most at times are not as effective as it would have been at the public hospitals.

Many parents have lost their children because of a general lack of funds to take them to hospitals while some who still manage to take these children to hospitals still end up losing them because most of them are only brought there at critical stages of the disease.

Mamadou Haye, father of a child victim said he lost his son while he was on medication at the hospital.

“I lost my third son and my first daughter while on drip at the hospital. The times are really hard. At the hospital you are asked to pay 18,000FCFA for drip while roadside practitioners do it for 5,000FCFA,” he said.

Many other parents due to these inflated costs at the hospitals decide to go for traditional healing methods which most at times have complicated the health situations of these children.

Mr. Ahmadou, a retired nurse in the Far North Region said the government needs to review the issue of drug availability in the hospitals of the region as some medical practitioners even go themselves for these street drugs while preventing others from using.

It is reported that close to seven children died from malaria on October 12, 2020 alone.
Most families, meanwhile, do not equally have the appropriate protection from Malaria as even mosquito nets which were distributed during the vaccination periods are generally sold to fishermen, exposing both adults and their children to the disease.

Mimi Mefo Info