Abandoned Polio-like paralyzed child

Abandoned Polio-like paralyzed child.

Sarah 2years old! Her Mom abandoned her at her parent’s home at the age of 2 month. This was brought so because the father denied her child that their family doesn’t bear premature children. Sarah is living with the Grandmother in Ssakabusolo village in Mpigi District-Uganda. The community of about 20 homes relies on one unprotected constructed spring for drinking, bathing, washing & in the preparation of food and a wildlife-pond for their livestock

within the same place. The wild-life pond is not drilled & does not have a watertight-casing that extends to the depth of at least six meters below the ground level. Within the same locality, there is an Alcohol distillation industry (Man-made pollution & waste toxins) on small scale business. It pollutes the whole environment; the soil, pasture/plants, air & water with the wastes & fumes. The wide ranges of ways contaminated water can enter the human body are staggering. Every day, people are put at risk through bathing & washing in hygienic water; the human cost of people consuming & coming into contact with unsafe water are dire. Water-related diseases are one of the leading causes of death. 

The biggest killer is diarrhea contracted from microorganisms in water contaminated distilled alcohol sewage. Cases of malnutrition are caused by diarrhea but nearly all diarrheal deaths are prevented by getting access to improved water & sanitation facilities. Patients with diseases not directly related to water such as HIV/AIDS are impacted by unsafe water because they are more susceptible to complications & infections. Remember the health effects of this place range from no physical impact to severe illness or even death. Some of the effects of using unprotected environment can be immediate or not noticed for many years, but the unsung hero of Uganda; Sarah’s Grandmother who noticed the impact of her Grandchild at 4 month and these included gastrointestinal & stomach illnesses like Nausea, Vomiting, Stomach cramps & upsets and diarrhea; were treated traditionally with almost no support/financial resource. Born unlucky, at 9 month; Sarah suffered weakness & paralysis throughout her body. Her Grandmother tried every type of local medicine to an extent of visiting the small gods in shrine consultations. But due to lack of financial support, Stool was generally the most sensitive spacemen for establishing an infection like this but nothing was done. Sarah’s situation worsened to an acute flaccid paralysis making her unable to crawl, speak, walk, play etc but felt a lot of pain as she used to cry endlessly. It was characterized by body weakness & reduced muscles tone. The nerves to a skeletal muscle were severed, and then the muscles exhibited flaccid paralysis. Sarah started receiving threats of suffocation, double vision, blurred vision, dropping eyelids, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth & muscle weakness.

At first when I saw Sarah; I detected Poliomyelitis-like paralysis since Polio is a water-borne disease but to my dismay, polio only attacks the limbs. The cause of this paralysis is not yet known & information about the outbreak is scarce. I don’t have any more information on this outbreak but thought I might speculate on what might be transpiring. Confirmation that acute flaccid paralysis is caused by poliovirus requires demonstration that the virus is present in the infected individual. So I don’t believe that poliovirus is causing the paralysis in Sarah. I understand that she has been immunized against polio virus, may be if immunizations have failed.