DRC: Five children died of anemia in Gbadolite

Since April 2012, five children have already died of anemia on the one hundred seventy children patients registered in the health zone of Gbadolite, in the province of Equateur. These victims are the most part younger than five years, Radio Okapi announced it yesterday.

According to Dr. Christopher Kotanda, medical director of health zone Gbadolite, "a recrudescence of anemia cases is observed annually during the same period because of heavy rain that falls on this part of the country".

The doctor believes that the stagnant waters of precipitation attract mosquitoes that cause malaria, the cause of anemia in children. Health teams are hard at work to sensitize people of Gbadolite to clean their environment.

In January 2012, the same media had announced that "a report of anemia cases, released by the Chief Medical Officer of Health Zone Salamabila, in Maniema province, indicated that during the month of November, five thousand cases of anemia were recorded whose more than three hundred fifty deaths. These anemia cases would be due to malaria". These surveys were conducted by health area responsible and members of the World Health Organization (WHO) from Kinshasa. This wave of anemia among children back in April of 2011

It should be noted that in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the last national survey of prevalence of anemia conducted in 2004 revealed a rate of 70.6% in children from 6 to 59 months. This rate indicates that anemia is a real public health problem in this country.