WV responds to diarrhoea outbreak
Nine-year-old Bintu Kargbo narrowly escaped death after she was hit by diarrhoea. She is one of 400 people affected by a diarrhoea outbreak that caused the death of at least six people (five adults and an under five) in Sulema and Fairo communities in the Sorogbema Chiefdom, Pujehun District, Southern Sierra Leone. A similar outbreak struck the entirety of Sulema in April 2012, in which 14 people reportedly dead.
Fairo, the Head Quarter Town of Sorogbema Chiefdom, is deprived of most modern-day amenities. Fairo can only boast of two water wells; a community health centre and a maternal health post. Fairo recorded two deaths out of the 32 cases reported.
Sulema has a population of about 4,000 with only three latrines and one water well. Open defecation is common for a community that lacks access to latrines. When the diarrhoea outbreak struck, the health post at Sulema had been overflowing with patients. Patients resorted to staying outside the clinic and responding to treatments.
With support from World Vision Korea through their Sorogbema Area Development Programme (ADP) at Sulema, World Vision Sierra Leone provided an emergency response to this crisis through Gifts in Kind drugs' followed by a cocktail of items listed: Ciprofloxacin; Erythromycin; Avorine Oral Rehydration Salt; Chlorolaxide Glucose; Doxcycline tablets; cups, buckets spoons; hand towels; bathing soap and laundry soap.
Bintu was admitted to the Sulema Health Centre at the time the drugs donated by World Vision were readily available. She was admitted to the hospital by her mother who was crying, thinking that her daughter was going to die. Bintu joined couple of patients who had been admitted at the hospital and were being treated using drugs and emergency kits provided by World Vision.
“I am happy about World Vision’s intervention,” Bintu says. “I was treated for diarrhoea the very day it attacked me. I lost weight, became weak and pale. I was afraid I was going to die. But World Vision helped,” she further states.
Natives of Sulema and Fairo attribute this fatal illness in their communities to the unavailability of safe drinking water and proper sanitation and hygiene in a Chiefdom that has an estimated population of 38,000. People mostly rely on contaminated river called Moa for laundering, bathing, cooking and even drinking.
Fairo, the Head Quarter Town of Sorogbema Chiefdom, is deprived of most modern-day amenities. Fairo can only boast of two water wells; a community health centre and a maternal health post. Fairo recorded two deaths out of the 32 cases reported.
Sulema has a population of about 4,000 with only three latrines and one water well. Open defecation is common for a community that lacks access to latrines. When the diarrhoea outbreak struck, the health post at Sulema had been overflowing with patients. Patients resorted to staying outside the clinic and responding to treatments.
With support from World Vision Korea through their Sorogbema Area Development Programme (ADP) at Sulema, World Vision Sierra Leone provided an emergency response to this crisis through Gifts in Kind drugs' followed by a cocktail of items listed: Ciprofloxacin; Erythromycin; Avorine Oral Rehydration Salt; Chlorolaxide Glucose; Doxcycline tablets; cups, buckets spoons; hand towels; bathing soap and laundry soap.
Bintu was admitted to the Sulema Health Centre at the time the drugs donated by World Vision were readily available. She was admitted to the hospital by her mother who was crying, thinking that her daughter was going to die. Bintu joined couple of patients who had been admitted at the hospital and were being treated using drugs and emergency kits provided by World Vision.
“I am happy about World Vision’s intervention,” Bintu says. “I was treated for diarrhoea the very day it attacked me. I lost weight, became weak and pale. I was afraid I was going to die. But World Vision helped,” she further states.
Natives of Sulema and Fairo attribute this fatal illness in their communities to the unavailability of safe drinking water and proper sanitation and hygiene in a Chiefdom that has an estimated population of 38,000. People mostly rely on contaminated river called Moa for laundering, bathing, cooking and even drinking.
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