An Appeal to present early to the hospital when your child has Severe Malaria (Features of Severe Malaria and why Malaria kill our children very fast)

Malaria is one of the major causes of neonatal and paediatrics death in our country.

It is a disease caused by the organism Plasmodium falciparium transmitted by the bite of female anopheles mosquito.

Malaria is Endemic with us in Nigeria...in a lay man term, Malaria lives within us!!!

It has gotten to the extent that it's really worth appealing for because it's becoming too unbearable witnessing deaths that could have been easily avoided only if the caregivers presented on time.

I've been to CHER (Children Emergency), University Of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, for a week now and just an hour ago, at exactly 2:43pm made it the 14th child I've witnessed die right Infront of me, out of that 14 children, 11 was as a result of Severe Malaria.

This is really a nasty figure and a painful one because c'mon, Medicine has gone past the age when severe malaria will kill you but then, that's what's killing our kids; our future hopes of tomorrow.... Isn't it painful?

You might be in doubt that malaria kills people in Nigeria because Malaria is endemic with us in Nigeria but then, these values up there 11/14 deaths from severe Malaria wasn't what I saw in textbook or what I heard from a friend... It's what I witnessed right Infront of me and I was there when they were pronounced dead.... So it's really not a joke at all.

Source

This is happening in Enugu Capital, a white collar job working class state where most of the inhabitants are learned, now come to think of what happens In our rural areas😢

Somehow somehow I don't seem to take off these incidents off my mind especially the moments the kids are pronounced dead and the mum and grandmum keeps crying and shouting for the doctor to do anything possible and bring the baby back to life but then nothing could be done at that point ... The pictures are clear in my head and it is in tears that I write this post😢

Why Malaria Kills Children Fastly

For adults, it's uncommon for severe Malaria to kill someone but it happens anyway and this is because of our higher haemoglobin level.

This makes it possible for us not to tilt towards anemia before intervening and also, the drugs are already out there everywhere within our reach in the right dosage.

For Children however, their haemoglobin level is very low and because Malaria is a disease that causes high hemolysis ( breaking down our red blood cells), this rapidly leads to the child becoming anemic and requiring blood transfusion depending on the extent of hemoglobin level at the time of presentation.

Remember that Red blood cells are the cells that transports oxygen throughout our system and when depleted predisposes the child to hypoxia leading to greater complications.

The drugs for the children's treatment are also available at every pharmacy but then getting the right dosage for the children especially at that very tender age is even a problem for us almost in the last lap of our medical training talk more of someone who wasn't trained in this field (further telling you the need to bring your child to the hospital once he or she has Malaria.)

Features of Severe Malaria

These are features you will see in your child who you may be treating for Malaria or yet to commence treatment that will make you pick up your nearest wrapper and rush to the hospital because if you don't, you might be at risk of loosing your beloved child which I know is not what any of us would wish for even our enemies...

They includes;

Fever
Pallor
Anemia
Prostration
Impaired consciousness
Fast breathing
Multiple convulsions
Abnormal bleeding
Jaundice
Coca-Cola coloured urine
Fever greater than 39.5°C
Persistent vomiting

Together, let's make our world a less painful place to stay and reduce crying over the loss of our young children by coming to the hospital early.

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Thanks for reading and have a nice day 👍