Spina bifida: Women urged to plan pregnancies
Women have been asked to plan ahead before getting pregnant, as one of the ways to help prevent the spina bifida and hydrocephalus condition.
“Since the defect of spina bifida and hydrocephalus occurs around the 20th day of pregnancy that is when tube responsible for the brain and spinal cord forms. Mothers should have sufficient folic acid in body. Mothers intending to get pregnant should take folic acid at least once a week,” said Dr. Charles Olaro , the director for curative services at the Ministry of Health.
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He was speaking during the commemorations to mark the World spina bifida and hydrocephalus day in Kampala on Tuesday.
Spina bifida is a birth defect that mainly affects the spine. Normally in the first month of pregnancy, a special set of cells forms the “neural tube.”
The top of the tube becomes the brain and the remainder becomes the spinal cord and structures around it. In spina bifida, the neural tube doesn’t close all the way and some of the bones of the spine don’t close in the back.
Experts say that about 60 percent of hydrocephalus cases in Africa are due to infections like germs whereas others are caused as a result of head injuries and tumours among others.
However, sometimes, hydrocephalus develops when the child is still in the womb.
Speaking on Tuesday, Dr. Olaro said it is crucial for mothers to have enough folic acid in the body to help support the formation of the brain and spinal cord.
“We also encourage that if you miss your period, you run to the health facility to be given folic acid and other supplements to help in the formation of the spinal cord and brain.”
Currently, there are challenges for parents with children who have the spina bifida and hydrocephalus condition to access medical care from hospital.
This is because the condition is only managed in three health facilities including Mulago National Referral Hospital, Mbarara Regional referral Hospital and Cure Children's Hospital of Uganda in Mbale.
However, the Ministry of Health official said plans are underway to have the condition treated in all regional referral hospitals around the country.
The good news is that parliament recently passed the budget to purchase CT scans in all regional referral hospitals in the country. This means we will need to deploy neurosurgeons and when you have all these in place, you can effectively handle spina bifida and hydrocephalus conditions,” Dr. Olaro said .
He said government is committed to dealing with spina bifida and hydrocephalus conditions as well as preventing them.
“In terms of prevention, government pushed for a law for fortification which emphasizes adding of folic acid and other nutrients into foods like maize grain and wheat flour. UNBS is supposed to enforce this standard,”he said.
Ruth Nalugya, the national coordinator of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Uganda (SHAU) said more is needed to be done to help deal with the condition.
“We don’t have database for accurate figures but estimations show we get 800 children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus 5400. This condition has been growing. This challenge is very big and needs to be given the required attention,” Nalugya said.
She called for social inclusion of the children with the condition.
“Because of the stigma associated with the condition of spina bifida and hydrocephalus ,many have been left out and environmental accessibility has become a big barrier to their social inclusion.”
She cited school environments which don’t have facilities like clean water for use by children with the condition which she said means they cannot ably look after themselves well.
“This has led to high numbers of school dropouts and others not joing school because the environment is not friendly to them. The prevalence is very alarming with over 12000 children living with this condition and many are locked behind doors with this condition in the communities.”
Nalugya said more attention ought to be put towards prevention of the condition but also management of children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus in the country.
