• Many parents buy drugs at chemist shops that do not cure the real condition.
• Communities accuse women of being bewitched, cursed or of bad lack.
A child rights crusader has urged parents not to disregard changes they notice in their children’s bodies, as they could be dangerous diseases.
Sauti ya Wanaume na Watoto group chairman Bishop James Njenga said many parents ignore signs of strange conditions they notice in their children and end up buying drugs at chemist shops that do not cure the real condition.
He said parents end up knowing that their children developed conditions such as hydrocephalus when their children's heads start to swell.
Njenga urged the national and county governments to embark on campaigns to educate parents on diseases that affect children silently and become expensive to treat.
“It is very important for mothers or both parents to know signs of diseases that affect the children since children cannot even describe what they are feeling in terms of pain, drowsiness and any other feeling a sick person feels,” he said.
OUTREACH PROGRAMME
Speaking at Limuru town, Njenga urged the government to educate community health workers on conditions such as hydrocephalus, spinal bifida and cleft lip palate, so they can enlighten the society that they are not caused by a curse or a bad omen.
“Some conditions happen to tender children, and women are left suffering together with their babies. The community accuses women of being bewitched, cursed or of bad lack,” he said.
AIC Kijabe Hospital's Dr Martin Muthinja said they conduct outreach campaigns, whereby they visit hospitals in the country to check on children born with hydrocephalus.
Whenever they find them, they conduct tests on them and counsel their parents before advising them to take their children to Bethany Kids Hospital, a special hospital for children in Kijabe Hospital.
The neurosurgeon said few hospitals in the country conduct management of the hydrocephalus condition.