“If nothing serious and sustainable is not done to address this pestilence”, the Ahmadiyya School Teacher emphasized, “a whole generation stands the risk of getting blind caused by bites from black flies.”
Source/Credit: Avoko News
By Saffa Moriba | September 18, 2013
A local teacher of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Secondary School in Boajibu town in the Simbaru Chiefdom in Kenema District has raised serious concern over huge amount of black flies in four of chiefdoms in the district that he said are potential threats for mass blindness in those chiefdoms if steps are taken to combat them around the rivers and their breeding grounds.
Sumaila Amadu Shengahun people of Wandor, Simbaru, Gorama Mende and Dodo Chiefdoms have rivers that flow through them and that these rivers being sources of livelihoods for the people, are breeding grounds or black flies whose bite can cause river blindness.
Sumaila made this disclosure to Awoko in an exclusive interview in Kenema City where he informed that he had gone to the District Health Management Team (DHMT) to inform it about the pending health disaster.
He explained rivers like Sewa, Laanyei, Mabangah, Tikpanyei and Maata rivers run across the four chiefdoms and several other chiefdoms in the district. He revealed that the swarm is so huge that “one cannot mince his or her words to refer to it as a plague,” Sumaila said. He said farmers and fishermen now spend little time out on their daily activities because of fear of the black flies. He said the flies are now invading nearby villages causing a lot of discomfort for the people.
He went on to disclose that the effect of the biting of these flies is “a large number of people that are having their eyes widely opened but cannot see.” He said the victims of these black fly bites include children and the elderly. “If nothing serious and sustainable is not done to address this pestilence”, the Ahmadiyya School Teacher emphasized, “a whole generation stands the risk of getting blind caused by bites from black flies,” he stated.
He disclosed that even though the District Health Management Team (DHMT) in Kenema District has been supplying Oncho drugs to people in these chiefdoms, it has not been effective in addressing the scourge. “Killing these flies from their breeding areas is the only sustainable solution. Distributing Oncho drugs is not sufficient a panacea since not everyone has access to the drugs. Besides, some people are being bitten several days before they get access to the drugs when they would have been overwhelmed by the parasite of the insects,” Mr. Sumaila Amadu Shengahun posited.
He suggested the use of anti parasite chemical spraying helicopters as was used in the 1970s and 1980s when similar black fly pandemic hit the region. He appealed to the Government of Sierra Leone, the United Nations and NGOs to come to the aid of the people of the affected chiefdoms to save them from blindness.
Read original post here: Black Flies pose threat of blindness in 4 Chiefdoms in Kenema District
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