KEEP CHILDREN AT HOME - DOCTOR

MBABANE – Dr Themba Ntiwane, a private health practitioner, has advised that children in preschools should stay at home until the outbreak of diarrhoea had been contained.

Ntiwane was speaking at his office during an interview yesterday.
He said although the outbreak had not reached pandemic levels, it can spread quicker in preschools.
“It’s not easy to teach very young children good hygiene habits,” said Ntiwane.

He said the children would be safer at home until the situation was under control.
Ntiwane said in his opinion, children should be kept at home for now.

He said the ongoing outbreak was caused by the Rota-virus and that it spread quicker when there was not enough or there was a lot of water.
Ntiwane said he did not believe it was the first time the country was experiencing this.
He said although in the past it may not have been widely publicised, similar situations had occurred before.

Statistics

Ntiwane said it was easier now to obtain more statistics about the outbreak.
Dr Sibongile Mtshali, the acting Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, said it was not up to the ministry to decide that children should stay at home due to ill health.

Mtshali said the responsibility lay on parents ensuring that children who were affected were not brought to school.
“Schools only deal with people who are healthy,” said Mtshali.

She said she was aware that the situation in schools was not conducive to practise good sanitation habits.
Mtshali said even if the ministry was to say children should stay at home, the problem will still persist.
She said schools had poor facilities such that many lacked clean running water or sanitised toilets.
Mtshali said it was unfortunate that so many children had died from diarrhoea.

The acting PS also said it would not be right for parents to letunaffected children stay at home just to prevent them from contracting the sickness. She said parents had contracts with schools to ensure that their children were in schools.
Mtshali said teaching of good hygiene habits should also be taught at home as well as in schools.

“We should work together to end this. There should be no finger pointing,” said Mtshali.
Sibongile Simelane, the Minister of Health, said as far as the ministry was concerned, the number of affected children had decreased.
“Even if you were to visit the hospitals, you will see that the number of admitted children was smaller,” said the minister.

When asked whether preschool children should remain at home until the outbreak had been completely controlled, Simelane said she was not in a position to comment on that.

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