By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Surgeon who is also the Medical Superintendent at the Government Hospital in Kenema has disclosed that surgery for children suffering from cleft palates will commence this August in Kenema.
Speaking to Politico on the 21st of July 2022, Dr. Ibrahim Kapuwa described cleft palate as a condition that causes difficulty in speech and breastfeeding for children born with it and that they are most discriminated against in their communities as they grow up.
He said, the cleft palate, normally located in the internal part of the mouth makes the baby voiceless and it leads to difficulty in breathing with several health complications, adding that, the social barriers affect the children greatly as it is mostly attributed to witchcraft.
Dr. Kapuwa stated that, the condition can be caused by genetic infection and that many children are suffering from it both in Sierra Leone and in other parts of the world.
He said in 2021, a similar move was made by surgeons from Ghana and Nigeria in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Medical team in Kenema to undertake free surgery for children and some adults that had cleft palates.
At that time, he said they targeted fifty patients but ended up with ninety-five patients with some coming from Liberia and other parts of the country, and that they all benefitted from the gesture.
Dr. Kapuwa stated that they are also expecting patients from neighbouring Guinea and Liberia for this year’s operation. However, he said this year’s operation will also take into cognizance the nutritional aspect saying that most of the patients last year were malnourished.
He maintained that, genetic infection is the leading cause of cleft palates, but that there are other risk factors such as cigarette smoking during pregnancy, alcohol, obesity, and diabetes in pregnancy which increase the risk.
The Medical Superintendent reiterated that pregnant women are not permitted to use all kinds of drugs because there are drugs that cause cancer and other complications including cleft for the baby, adding that, cleft can be treated and cured by taking medical advice.
“We want a cleft surgeon to be based in Kenema and we are given more capacity training to our nurses’’ said Dr. Kapuwa.
Like last year, he said the surgery will be free of charge and that they will build on the few challenges detected from the last one stating that, they want to make Kenema the hub for cleft palate surgery in Sierra Leone so that other countries within the Mano River Union will come to Sierra Leone and Kenema in particular as a place for cleft treatment
He said that the screening process will commence soon while calling on the public to make use of the opportunity, saying that they are targeting one hundred patients.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (22/07/22)
