By Mustapha Jarju
The members of Justice for the 66+ Babies group, on Friday, 14th October 2022 organized a press conference at Baobab Hotel in Bijilo to express grievances over the death of 66+ children of Acute Kidney Injury.
The forum called on the government to disclose the actual amount of children who died from Acute Kidney Injuries caused by Paracetamol, while they maintained their position on calling for the resignation of the Minister of Health his position.
Human right activist Madi Jobarteh, speaking at the press conference said, “laziness in our health care is causing loss of lives, due to poor service delivery. We have these syrups in this country because of a failure at the quality level, the level of the president and the level of the minister,” he said.
Madi called on the citizen to come together to maintain accountability, and quality service delivery at all times, so that such a situation as the death of more than 66 children doesn’t go under the carpet just like that.
“How do they have drugs purposely made for the Gambia with low quality, when we have National Drugs Control Agency Pharmaceutical Council to make sure the medicines that come into the Gambia and pharmacies that operate here, operate by abiding the laws? And they (the agency) should administer them to ensure they move accordingly,” he stressed
Ebrima Sanyang a victim who lost his child to Acute Kidney Injury caused by Paracetamol said he is a victim of AKI death because his son Lamin Sanyang who is 3 to four years old get sick and he takes him to the hospital, “when we get to the hospital they gave us a lot of medicines which include Paracetamol Syrup. It was on a Wednesday night I gave the medicine to his mother, the following day which was on a Thursday he couldn’t urinate or defecate throughout,” he said.
Mr. Sanyang continued that his wife called to inform him that Lamin was unable to urinate or even defecate throughout the day. “I told him maybe he doesn’t drink enough water or doesn’t eat enough food, but the mother was still in doubt, that was when the mother took him to Afrimec Clinic where he was admitted before they refer them to Banjul.
“Before we reach Banjul I was told the child was supposed to be taken to Dakar, I told them for me to take my child to Dakar right now it will be difficult for me, that was when the Doctor told me to wait for him to call their boss to enquire either all the required material to conduct operation on my child are available. The doctor came back to me and said ‘thank God there is one of the materials I have no choice but for them to do the operation,” Sanyang explained in a sad voice.
He continued that when his child was operated the entire test conducted on him goes with money, he said he was not having money at the moment and he gave his insurance card to the Unit where they conduct the tests so that when his son recovered he can make payments, which they agreed, he noted.
