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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU AND GOODLUCK MUSINGUZI
PAKWACH: MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2025
Maureen Parwoth Kayenyi spent Sh5,000 on a bodaboda (motorcycle taxi) to take her to Pakwach Health Center IV when her child fell ill last week.
A resident of Vungandik village, Oliojo parish in Pakwach sub-county, Kayenyi said the condition of her child was so severe that she felt no other health center would handle it in the district other than Pakwach Health Center III, the biggest health facility in the area.
Upon arrival, the child was admitted for closer medical attention and after examination, he was found with severe anemia.
The medics transfused three units of blood to resuscitate the child and then proceeded to treat malaria that was said to be the parasite behind the illness.
Last Thursday, Kayenyi smiled with relieve as she exited the gates of the health facility upon discharge.
“I am happy because there is very great difference in his health. My boy is once again playing happily,” Kayenyi said in an interview.
Malaria is one of the leading contagions causing of anemia along with bilharzia or schistosomiasis in Pakwach district according to medics and district officials.
Residents closer to the river Nile and its surrounding marshes are said to be at the highest risk of bilharzia and malaria.
Health center records indicate that at least 1009 case of malaria were treated at Pakwach health center in 2024/2025 Financial Year, 88 cases of bilharzia and also 84 cases of sickle cell were managed there.
But unlike Kayenyi who got all her medical assistance from within the health center premises, save for sh500 which was spent on pain killer medicine, Liberty Nyivuru, a resident of Amur Watukweyo village in Pakwach Town Council was not fortunate.
Nyivuru intimated that upon admission to Pakwach Health Center IV with a sick child who was suffering from cough, she spent a whole week buying all the needed medicines from outside because she was told that Pakwach health center did not have medicines for cough.
Dr John Bosco Oryema, a senior medical officer at Pakwach Health Center IV, confirmed that the health center has high rate of drug usage and blood consumption because it is the referral point and operates below the recommended capacity of a district health facility.
A district is supposed to have a hospital while health centre is recommended for a county or constituency.
Dr Oryema attributes the high rate of blood consumption in Pakwach to complications of anemia caused by severe malaria in children and late stage schistosomiasis in youths and adults.
He said 598 blood units were utilized in 2024/2025 due to those conditions whcihc are among the top ten diseases, conditions and services rendered at Pakwach health center.
“Malaria cases are coming down because of the various interventions to prevent and treat malaria right from households in the villages,” indicated Dr Oryema.
But for Bilharzia, Dr Oryema said there is wide spread ignorance among the community about transmission, symptoms and treatment that most people mistake bilharzia for witchcraft.
“In its late stage, bilharzia cause stomach budging and vomiting of blood leading to anemia and death if not properly attended to,” he said.
Dr Oryiema explained that bilharzia can enter the body when a person steps into contaminated water or drinks the parasite in untreated water.
Once in the body, the worm proceeds to the liver to cause fibrosis (thickening of the liver wall) which hampers normal blood flow.
He said at least five out of 10 children between two and six years in Pakwach has intestinal bilharzia but the late stage condition of vomiting blood is common among the 20 to 30 year-old youths.
Treatment is also complicated by the fact that the Ministry of Health has only allowed one type of drug with World Health Organisation approval for Bilharzia treatment known as Praziquantel.
But this drug is not among the essential drugs supplied by the government through the National Medical Stores to Pakwach health centre IV.
“We don’t have the medicine in our health facility because the NMS does not supply it. Yet we have made them aware that Bilharzia is now our biggest problem,” Dr Oryema underlined.
When diagnosed with bilharzia, the medical workers tell the people to go to private clinics to look for the drug which are rare and expensive unlike cough which though is the biggest cause of ailment in the district, has medicine readily available over the counter in the drug shops and clinic.
He was backed by the district Chairman, Robert Steen Omito, who called for urgent governmental intervention to eradicate bilharzia in Pakwach.
Omito said bilharzia is so endemic in Pakwach that the district has literally turned into bilharzia supplier to the rest of the country.
“If you check people found with bilharzia around Lake Kyoga, around Lake Victoria or in Kampala City, you will find that majority of them are from Pakwach district,” he claimed.
Omito reasoned that the sickness was having a negative bearing on the local economy as it renders the work force redundant.
“It is therefore prudent and urgent that this problem be addressed at the source, which is Pakwach district itself” said Omito.
