BUBANZA June 29th (ABP) – The health province of Bubanza (north-west of Burundi) has recorded a huge number of malaria cases in these days, as disclosed by the Provincial Health Bureau (BPS).
According to that information source, the province has a total of 527,777 inhabitants. In June 2020, the health province recorded 44,480 suspected cases of malaria, including 22,607 with positive results and 16 deaths. In May 2021, that health province had already registered 51,512 suspected cases of malaria, including 25,290 positive cases and one death. The health district of Mpanda, which includes the communes of Mpanda, Gihanga and Rugazi, is the most threatened.
As for the causes of that outbreak of malaria cases, some inhabitants of Bubanza province that a check by ABP contacted speak of the non-use of mosquito nets, which is the ignorance of that disease. There is also the case of certain pharmacists who sell drugs according to the financial means of the patients and which makes that most take incomplete cures or self-medication, and prayer rooms which prevent patients from going to the healthcare facilities. They ask the competent authorities to provide preventive treatment for children under five, to provide mosquito net sales outlets at health centers, to discourage self-medication, to encourage natural products over drugs that are chemical products.
The physician director of the Provincial Health Bureau, Dr Joëlle Bigirimana, indicates that mobile clinics are already at work in that province for the treatment of malaria. Regarding prevention, Dr Bigirimana calls for the effective involvement of all, by favoring “community dialogue”, with the aim of triggering community engagement, social and individual change, in a sustainable manner.