Children Dying in Diphtheria outbreak in Garowe as private Hospitals call for access to lifesaving Drugs..

An outbreak of Diphtheria in Garowe has led to the deaths of 130 children in the last three months, according to Somali doctors working in private and public hospitals in this district of Puntland. Many more patients have been hospitalized with the disease and numbers are said to be rising…

Four local hospitals have been admitting children who are sick. They are the private Gotale hospital, Qaran hospital, Arafat hospital, and the public Garowe general hospital, The director of Gotale hospital, Dr Ahmed Gutale, told Radio Ergo’s local correspondent in an interview that most of the children dying from Diphtheria in this outbreak were unvaccinated children from the rural areas outside the town.

Dr Gutale also appealed to the Puntland health authorities to ensure that private hospitals were supplied with the necessary antitoxins to treat cases of Diphtheria, as currently they do not have access to the drugs required to save lives, Radio Ergo’s correspondent, Abdiweli Mohamed Sheikh, asked Dr Gutale to describe what he has been seeing at his hospital.

In Gotale hospital we have attended to many children who are sick with this disease and there are some who recover. The children who usually recover swiftly from this disease are those who have been vaccinated. However, the children dying of this disease acquire comorbidities where for example, their kidneys or hearts are affected.