By Hou Akot Hou
At least three children have been reported to have succumbed to anemia in Aweil West County, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State.
Anemia is a medical condition in which a patient lacks enough blood to power the body with oxygen.
Medics said the lack of blood in the bodies of the patients contributed to the deaths among the children.
Lual Khamis Lual, the assistant director for the Nyamlel hospital in Aweil West County, disclosed that they discovered in the course of the week the gravity of the lack of blood in children, as dozens of them were diagnosed with anemia.
According to him, three of those children died on Thursday as a result of a lack of blood.
Khamis said three of the children among the rest who have been anemic for a period of about a month have died since the facility lacks a blood bank.
“These children who died were not admitted. They suffered in the villages, and they rushed to a health center called Anyuop-nyang, and the other one was at Akuang-ngap,” he narrated.
“Their parents or guardians delayed them in the villages. When they brought them, we got a history that they had been suffering from anemia, and that forced us to send them to the MSF medical team in Aweil, and the three died instantly before reaching Aweil,” he continued.
The assistant medical director urges the public to exercise restraint against detaining children and patients in the villages before taking them to health facilities for treatment.
He acknowledged a lack of blood banks or ignorance of giving blood in the communities due to stereotypes that residents are preoccupied with, such as getting weak if one gives blood, which he says is not true.
Anemia is a medical condition in which the capacity of the blood to transport oxygen to the tissues is reduced, either because of too little hemoglobin, resulting in pallor or fatigue.