Nodding areas are not disaster zones, says government

The Minister for Information and National Guidance, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, looks at Ronald Okot Ayoli, who is recovering from nodding syndrome in Lajeny village in Pader District on Friday. Ms Karooro said government will not declare the region a disaster zone over the disease, insisting that most patients are responding to treatment. Although the WHO puts the affected children at 7,000, the government maintains that there are only 3,000 in the entire sub region. The cause and mode of transmission of the disease remains unknown. More than 200 others have already died of it. PHOTO BY CISSY MAKUMBI.

The Minister for Information and National Guidance, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut has said the government will not declare areas affected by the nodding disease a disaster zone as demanded by some opposition politicians, saying the disease is controllable.

Ms Okurut said since the patients have started responding to sodium valporate drugs, a drug used for treating the syndrome, it would be illogical to declare the region a disaster region.

The Minister, who made the remarks during her visit to Atanga nodding disease centre in Pader District on Friday, noted that government’s initiative in handling the patients is already yielding results, leaving a lot of hope for the people.

“There is hope for the children that they will get back to their feet. The government has not folded its hands on the matter; food supplies and medicines have been in supply and improvement of the patients is already visible,” she noted.

The government has been on pressure from civil society organisations, opposition politicians and other critics to declare the region a disaster zone to attract attention from donors to enable flow in of medicinal and other logistical support for the affected people.
MPs Betty Aol Ochan and Gilbert Olanya of Gulu District and Kilak County respectively, last week said the government’s under estimation of the negative impact of the disease to the patients, could be a recipe for more health problems in the region.

They said the region deserves to be declared a disaster area following the destruction caused by the disease on the affected families.
They also claimed that government’s intervention on ground is so minimal that requires immediate intervention from the outside world.

In Pader, the in charge of Atanga Health Centre, Mr David Nokrach, said majority of the children are malnourished while others have burns as a result of convulsions that cause them to fall in fires.