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Expert says Zim child deaths not linked to bilharzia drugs
Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye, VOA News
November 05, 2013
View this article
on the VOA News website
A health expert
says parents should immediately rush their children to hospital
if they react to bilharzia and hookworm drugs being administered
under a national programme meant to eradicate these diseases.
The call follows the death
of three children who took praziquantel tablets that were administered
under a nationwide programme which started a week ago.
Biochemist and immunologist at the University
of Zimbabwe, Professor Takafira Duluza, said children will survive
if they are taken to hospital early though he cautions that the
victims may have died of other ailments.
He said research into the medication being administered shows that
it should not lead to fatalities.
“Rarely
or none at all has ever happened especially as far as treatment
for these worms is concerned. Even if you try to get to a public
library and search for praziquantel and its usage since it was formulated,
you will see that there have never been any deaths so far,”
said Professor Daluza.
Reacting to
the deaths, a Form Six student Brien Chimbunde of Mutimi High School,
in Zaka said some students were fainting after taking the medication
on empty stomachs.
The Ministry
of Health and Child Care last week embarked on a mass drug administration
exercise, hoping to distribute about 11.5 million donated praziquantel
tablets to treat 4.3 million children for bilharzia and intestinal
worms. The ministry hoped to be able to reach all children aged
1 to 15 in all of Zimbabwe’s 63 districts.
But some parents declined to let their children take the drugs,
saying they needed more information about the drug and any possible
side effects. They charge that they had received no information
about the treatment program, learning about it only when ministry
officials began showing up at area schools.
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