Plight of children battling pneumonia amid doctors’ strike
Susan Wambui holding her bay at Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in Mombasa. The baby is battling severe pneumonia.
What you need to know:
- Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide.
- Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but deaths are highest in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
On April 12, Simon Muraguri and his wife Susan Wambui were devastated when they saw their 14-day-old baby struggle to breathe. Mr Muraguri, a resident of Mshomoroni in Mombasa, rushed the baby to hospital. However, his efforts were futile as none of the public hospitals in Kisauni Sub-county agreed to receive the baby due to the ongoing doctor’s strike.“That is when I decided to seek medical services in a private hospital.”
Here, the baby was admitted as an emergency case after being diagnosed with pneumonia. However, her condition continued to deteriorate and on April 19, they were referred to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital. “We are now admitted at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital. My daughter has severe pneumonia. It is one of the worst diseases,” said Mr Muraguri.
The baby is among hundreds of others whose parents have been forced to rely on private hospitals following the ongoing doctors’ strike. Some parents have resorted to over-the-counter medicines to treat their children due to lack of financial means to enable them seek services in private hospitals.
“My child also has pneumonia but I am using drugs prescribed by our local pharmacist to treat him. If the doctors were not on strike, I would have gone to a public hospital and get free treatment,” said Esther Onyango, a Bangladesh resident. This comes a fortnight after Mombasa County health authorities declared paediatric pneumonia as an outbreak. The county has so far recorded over 1,359 cases of pneumonia, Covid and influenza majorly affecting children under the age of five.
In the last one month, doctors in the county have witnessed a surge in cases of diarrhoea with pneumonia-like symptoms, including difficulty in breathing, with several babies admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICU). In the few cases that Dr Hemed Twahir from Aga Khan Hospital Mombasa has treated, he says he has had to give strong antibiotics because the babies have severe pneumonia.
“The way they are presenting with serious symptoms requiring strong antibiotics and admissions to ICU or High Dependency Units is what has been baffling us,” said the pediatrician. He noted that pneumonia is an infection that can either be viral or bacterial.
Bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics, whereas supportive care is needed for viral pneumonia.
“Supportive care means you support by giving oxygen if the patient requires it, by rehydrating, and feeding the patient. Eventually the body recovers by itself.” He noted that with the onset of the rains, infection patterns change; with a surge in diarrhoea cases and new infections. He urged parents and guardians to engage in control measures including washing hands using soap and drinking safe water to prevent diarrhoea cases.
“Boiling water or using chlorine tablets will prevent diarrhoea. For pneumonia, children present with high fever and difficulty in breathing so when parents see this they need to go to the hospital. They should also ensure that children are vaccinated at six weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks to prevent pneumonia,” said Dr Twahir.
He said the vaccine reduces the risk of getting pneumonia.
Last week but one, Mombasa County government recalled doctors and clinical officers on leave or off-duty over the outbreak of pneumonia. However, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists officials rejected the plea, saying they were on strike, which was called by their national office.
In a memo seen by Healthy Nation dated April 8, 2024, Health Executive Swabah Omar urged the doctors and clinical officers on leave to resume duty over the paediatric pneumonia outbreak.
“Following the increasing need for services in our facilities due to the outbreak of paediatric pneumonia among other disease, I hereby direct that all doctors and the clinical officers on annual leave or off duty to be recalled back to work with immediate effect so as to ensure smooth service delivery,” said Dr Omar.
Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Pneumonia affects children and families everywhere, but deaths are highest in southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
