UGANDA:OKOK CAN REMO OEKO LATINA

Acholi was a 9 year old male, the only son, living with both parents in some village in Pader District of Northern Uganda.

Acholi, developed fever at night, shivering like he is being shocked with electricity and complaining of feeling very cold.

Min Acholi piled blankets on him, as she had no medicine with her.

In the morning, Min Acholi decides to seek medical help from her VHT who lives about a kilometre from their home.

On her arrival, Min Acholi found the VHT had already gone to plough some body’s garden, which is about one and half kilometer from his home, so she was to wait until 3.00 p.m when he, the VHT is expected to return.

Fortunately, the wife of the VHT had one panadol that was a balance of treatment for his two year old child; being a mother, she gave first aid treatment to Acholi as they waited for the VHT to return and administer to Acholi proper treatment and management of his condition.

The fever subsided and Min Acholi decided to return home and come back later to have proper care from the VHT.

While at home, Acholi was left by her mother under the watch of his younger sister, to allow her go to the garden and pick some food.

When their mother returned from the garden, she found Acholi lying under the hot sun. His body felt so hot as if their was fire in side him.

She took Acholi inside the house and covered him with blankets so that, he can sweat the fever out, as they wait to return to meet with the VHT.

Acholi after some minutes of covering started vomiting and behaving unusual.

The mother prepared so fast and carried him on her back to rush to VHTs home since the time of his return was approaching.

Fortunately, she found the VHT had just returned from the garden.

The VHT, immediately attended to them.

However, he had only some antibiotics left in his carbin. Realising this, he immediately wrote a note and referred them to the nearest health center, which is 6 km away.

It was getting late and time for the curfew imposed by the COVID-19 presidential directive was approaching i.e. 07.00 p.m.

They needed a boda-boda to take them very fast.

The only person with a motor-cycle had no fuel. If they needed to use the motor-cycle, they had to walk about 6 km to the trading center and buy fuel. With the curfew time approaching, every one feared of being canned and arrested by the security personnel.

Min Acholi was left with no choice other than to wait till the next morning.

Acholi continuously vomited everything that entered his stomach. He had very high fever, and his mother just kept covering him with very thick blanket. Still the shivering persisted.

In the morning, they decided to borrow a bicycle to go to the health center which was 6 km away.

This health center has only two nurses.

At the health center, they found the nurse on duty had gone to fetch water, which is about a kilometer away, since the near-by borehole had broken down.

The second nurse had travelled to submit drug orders to the district health officers office.

Stuck with no better alternative, they had to wait for some hours, for the nurse to come back from fetching water.

The nurse returned after two hours.

The nurse found there were very many people fetching water and none would sacrifice to give her water, so she had to follow the cue like any other water fetcher.

The nurse found Acholi had very high fever, weak, dehydrated, very pale and malaria test was positive.

The nurse administered injection to reduce fever and referred Acholi immediately to the nearest hospital, since he needed urgent medical attention including blood transfusion.

This hospital is 35 kilometers from the health unit, Acholi was.

Fever had subsided but Acholi needed urgent medical attention since he was dehydrated and anemic.

Min Acholi had not prepared to go that far and needed some money to help support her during her stay in the hospital. So she decided to return home, sell some goats and then start the journey the next morning.

Acholi did not sleep well, he w