A MYSTERY disease that causes patients to vomit blood has killed at least 15 people in Tanzania, officials said.
More than 50 people have been hospitalized in the south of the country due to an unidentified condition which also causes nausea in the sick.
Health officials said some patients, mostly men, died within hours of showing symptoms in the Mbeya region.
Felista Kisandu, chief medical officer for rural Chunya district in Mbeya, said a team of experts had been deployed to assess patients and investigate the cause of the outbreak.
She said: “This problem has not been generalized.
“It happened in one administrative department in Ifumbo where people vomit blood and die when they arrive late at the hospital.
“The cause of their illness has not yet been identified, but the Tanzania Ministry of Health has ruled out an outbreak. “
Kisandu said local water and blood samples from patients were being tested by the government for traces of mercury contamination.
She said: “The first clinical examinations revealed that the patients, mostly men, suffered from stomach ulcers and liver disease.
“We advised them to avoid drinking illicit drinks, smoking cigarettes and other strong drinks. “
However, following Dr Kisandu’s statements on Saturday, the country’s Minister of Health Dorothy Gwajika ordered his suspension yesterday.
Gwajika said the medical expert’s remarks created “unnecessary panic” among residents.
She said: “For causing unnecessary panic among the residents, I order the employer of Dr Felista Kisandu to suspend her in order to open the way for investigations by the Medical Council and submit the report to me within ten. days.
Government officials said similar symptoms hit the region in 2018, when patients suffered from a high fever, nausea and vomiting blood.
The Minister of Health urged people to remain calm and promised to provide further updates soon.
It comes as the country’s President John Magufuli has claimed Covid was arrested in Tanzania because of the power of prayer.
He made the statement on January 9 – six weeks after his government stopped publicly updating the virus data.
He said, “The crown in our land has been taken away by the powers of God. “
Tanzanians have been urged to boost their immunity with herbal remedies in a bid to fight the killer coronavirus.
The number of Covid-19 cases in Tanzania has remained at 509 for six weeks – however, opposition figures estimate the cases could number in the tens of thousands.
-n !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;n t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,n document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);n fbq(‘init’, ‘752905198150451’);n fbq(‘track’, “PageView”);n rn”,”author”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Merlin Charpie”,”url”:”https://news-24.fr/author/merlin/”},”articleSection”:[“News”],”image”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://news-24.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/NINTCHDBPICT000634916442.jpg”,”width”:1200,”height”:800},”publisher”:{“@type”:”Organization”,”name”:””,”url”:”https://news-24.fr”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:””},”sameAs”:[“https://www.facebook.com/jegtheme/”,”https://twitter.com/jegtheme”,”https://www.instagram.com/jegtheme”,”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSEZYAicvipL95JrvISyIw”]}}
