Health officials and residents have reported that at least 30 people have died from an unidentified disease in Bay region’s Bardale district.
The disease has also infected dozens other patients, among them children in the past two months.
WHO’s medical officer in the district, Ibrahim Aden,said the area had no medical centre and the patients had no access to a doctor. Those who can afford it must travel to the region’s capital Baidoa, about 57km away from Bardale, for medical care.
Aden said the symptoms shown by patients included an enlarged stomach and high fever. He added that the disease was first seen in the district six years ago, but it hadlater disappeared.
Though health officers are yet to identify the cause and treatment of the disease, the WHO officer in Bardale said it could be linked to the consumption of sorghum grain that had been kept in storage with poor sanitation storage and drinking unclean water.
