Ignorance on malaria treatment ruined Munguchi's life

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Ignorance on malaria treatment ruined Munguchi's life New Vision (Kampala) - December 22, 2010
Pascal kwesiga

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HE sits helpless in a locally fabricated wooden chair as saliva flows uncontrollably from his mouth. Evidently, flies take advantage of his condition to feast on his saliva and excreta. Davis Munguchi, a six-year-old boy, is disabled and unable to walk. Confined in a wooden chair, he sits motionlessly. He seems unaware of what is going on around him.
When answering nature's call, Munguchi soils his clothes. He cannot stand upright or sit without assistance of his colleagues.
Genesis of the problem
Like any other child, Munguchi had a normal growth until the age of four. His grandfather then took him to a witch doctor in Butoba village in Bwijanga sub-county in Masindi district in 2008 for treatment of malaria, which he mistook for witchcraft.
Malaria struck Munguchi shortly after his mother had died of HIV/AIDS. Consequently, Munguchi's grandparent took him away from his father, Geoffrey Angulo, and put him under the care of a witch doctor, where he has been bedridden for the last two years.
In July, moved by Munguchi's plight, a resident alerted the Family Spirit Child Care Centre about his situation. The organisation, started by teachers living with HIV/AIDS in Masindi, takes care of orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS.
Lying on a rag, Munguchi could neither sit nor open his eyes, when Isaac Nyakooja, the director of the organisation, went to pick him from the witchdoctor's home.
"We spent three months looking for this boy. The witch doctor's home was hard to access. We did not see the witch doctor, but his wife told us that not even modern medicine would improve the boy's condition," Nyakooja says.
Defects
Munguchi's tongue was partly cut by the witch doctor probably in a bid to find cure for his illness.
Munguchi, who was about to begin school at the time he was taken to the witch doctor, has now lost his ability to speak. His dream of going to school has been shattered. Munguchi is fed on pounded food.
"You cannot know when he wants to ease himself. He does not talk. He is also stunted," Nyakooja adds.
His fellow children at the child care centre carry him from his bed and place him in the wooden chair every morning. In the evenings, the children help him to stretch out on a wooden frame designed to assist him stretch his muscles.
"We think he can be able to walk again, if he is helped to stretch his muscles," Nyakoojo comments.
Fortunately, Munguchi was found HIV-negative.
Doctor's findings
Dr. Laker Olwedo of Ngomokwe Nursing home in Masindi town says Munguchi is suffering from an epilepsy attack.
"Malaria is a common cause of epilepsy. It is dangerous if not treated because it can result in many complications."
He says epilepsy can cause disability since it damages the brain. "The centre of speech is the brain and once it is affected, one may fail to speak or walk since the nerves and muscles get affected," Olwedo says.
Any hope?
Olwedo who has been treating Munguchi for the last six months, says: "We are controlling epilepsy, we are not treating it because there is no cure. He has to take the tablets forever.
Sometimes one gets better, but the condition can worsen, if the drugs are not taken," Olwedo adds.
He says it is possible that Mugunchi might also be suffering from tetanus which he could have developed when the witchdoctor cut an ovula from his tongue.
"The wound left can be attacked by bacterial infections which go into the blood stream and damage the brain," Olwedo says.
MALARIA FACT FILE
# Humans get malaria through mosquito bites.
# Uganda records an estimated 12 million cases of malaria every year.
# Between 70,000 and 110,000 children in Uganda die of malaria annually.
# Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur.
Prevention
# Visit your health care provider 4-6 weeks before foreign travel
# Take your antimalarial drug on schedule
# Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts, especially from dusk to dawn
# Sleep under a treated mosquito net