{"id":34912,"date":"2023-05-13T15:59:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T15:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=34912"},"modified":"2023-05-14T07:29:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T07:29:33","slug":"deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained","title":{"rendered":"Deaths of other 17 children in Gambia explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Dr Mustapha Bittaye, the director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, has explained the cause of the deaths of 17 children at the Kanifing General Hospital, saying the \u201cministry is working tirelessly in establishing the root cause of the death of the children\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Health Services director also reaffirmed the ministry\u2019s commitment to the welfare of Gambians, saying: \u201cThere is no need to panic as doctors have already had diagnosis of the diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

The death of the children was reported to the Epidemiology and Disease Control (EDC) unit of the Ministry of Health. However, it was reported to be detected by the hospital management on 29 March 2023.<\/p>\n

Explaining the preliminary report about the cause of the death of the 17 children, Dr Bittaye said: \u201cThree children died as a result of sepsis secondary to meningitis; three children died as a result of respiratory distress secondary severe pneumonia; two other children died as a result of meningitis, aspiration pneumonia plus dehydration; three children died as a result of sepsis secondary hypovolemic shock; two other children died as a result of sepsis, encephalitis and AKI; one died as a result of severe anaemia secondary severe bronchitis; three died as a result of sepsis Q Epilepsy and another one child died as a result of severe sepsis pneumonia.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said further: \u201cWe can confirm that there are deaths of children at the Kanifing General Hospital. However, the most important thing at the moment is that the ministry is moving forward. We don\u2019t wait for things to happen or wait until it happens and we start looking into it. So, all these deaths that happened have diagnoses. The doctors have already had a preliminary diagnosis and they are tirelessly working on that, and it\u2019s a different disease. Some diseases are sepsis among others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Bittaye again clarified: \u201cWhen the doctors do the analysis, they think that it\u2019s going to be high because there is too much mortality. So, we are just doing an audit to see what the deaths are and whether they are related or not. We are currently doing a preliminary investigation. So, it\u2019s not like an outbreak that we confirm or anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of the children could be viral meningitis bacteria and among others. Therefore, we need to know the causes of the death of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quizzed on whether the death of the children has to do with the drugs they have been taking, the doctor elucidated: \u201cWe don\u2019t suspect the death of the children has to do with drugs. However, now we are testing our drugs frequently. We are also checking the drugs the children have taken and whether the drugs have any problem or not. But all these children come with symptoms. Again, we will check the drugs they are using and if we find any drugs that fail, we usually address them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry is trying to investigate it with the objective of finding out whether there are any other things on it or whether it is just a routine case we have. Again, we have also notified our people across the country. But this could also be viral bacteria. We therefore want to audit what is causing the death of children in The Gambia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unlikely that the 17 children died as a result of the medications they are using at home. However, as I told you, we are testing the drugs they were using. We have been testing many drugs in the country and the ones that were not fit have been removed. Now before you bring in drugs in the country, they are thoroughly tested whether they are drugs ordered by the central government or the private pharmacies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government, he said, with the help of the World Bank, is currently building a testing laboratory in the country, adding that such a lab would go a long way in ensuring that drugs consumed in the country are up to standard as \u201ctesting drugs outside the country is expensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

He allayed public concern regarding the situation: \u201cWe are trying to see the root cause. If there is anything, we will take it from there but if there is nothing then we will control it. Because of what happened in the past, the ministry is rapidly moving forward. We don\u2019t wait for things to happen and we take action. But even if we see many people dying as a result of malaria we check it and raise the alarm. Because of the bad experience we have had with AKI, the ministry and its staff are working vigorously to protect Gambians from all kinds of diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Dr Mustapha Bittaye, the director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, has explained the cause of the deaths of 17 children at the Kanifing General Hospital, saying the \u201cministry is working tirelessly in establishing the root cause of the death of the children\u201d. The Health Services director also reaffirmed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":34911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-34912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nDeaths of other 17 children in Gambia explained - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr Mustapha Bittaye, the director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, has explained the cause of the deaths ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deaths of other 17 children in Gambia explained\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr Mustapha Bittaye, the director of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, has explained the cause of the deaths ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-13T15:59:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-14T07:29:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683975886.39.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Deaths of other 17 children in Gambia explained\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-13T15:59:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-14T07:29:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\"},\"wordCount\":796,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683975886.39.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/deaths-of-other-17-children-in-gambia-explained\",\"name\":\"Deaths of other 17 children in Gambia explained - 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