WOMEN URGES TO EAT FOODS WITH PLENTY OF FOLIC ACID

Dr. Hamisi Shabani who is a Neurosurgeon from Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) speaking to journalists during a screening and operation camp of children with Hydrocephalus and Spinal bifida problems held at the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital in Mbeya Region during the weekend.

A resident of Mwaka Village Tunduma in Momba District, Mbeya region Veronica Tweve,40 sits on beside her child on bed at Mbeya Referral Hospital where she is admitted during a screening and operation camp of children with Hydrocephalus and Spinal bifida problems held at the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital in Mbeya Region during the weekend.

Neurosurgeon from Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) Dr. Mugisha Clement (centre)speaks to a resident of Mwaka Village Tunduma in Momba District, Mbeya Region, Veronica Tweve,40 who  sits on beside her child on hospital bed at Mbeya Referral Hospital where she is admitted during a screening and operation camp of children with Hydrocephalus and Spinal bifida problems held at the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital in Mbeya Region during the weekend.

The team of doctors from Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) and Bugando Medical center is doing one of neurological operation to the child with neural tube defect at Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital yesterday. (Photo by Friday Simbaya)

WOMEN have been advised to eat foods with plenty of folic acid nutrients which help prevent neural tube defects (NTD), serious abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord.

The type of food that contain folic acid include green vegetables, fruits, eggs, lever , milk and so on.

The call was by Dr. Hamisi Shabani who is a Neurosurgeon from Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) during a screening and operation camp of children with Hydrocephalus and Spinal bifida problems held at the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital in Mbeya Region during the weekend.

"One of the best things you can do to ensure a healthy baby is to make sure you are eating a healthy diet, with plenty of folate-rich foods, before you get pregnant," said Dr Shabani- MD, PhD.

Hydrocephalus is defined as an excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulation in the head caused by a disturbance of formation, flow, or absorption.

Spina bifida is a birth defect that happens when a baby's backbone (spine) does not form normally. 

As a result, the spinal cord and the nerves that branch out of it may be damaged.

He said that the studies show that if all women consumed the recommended amount of folic acid before and during early pregnancy, up to 70 percent of all NTD could be prevented.

Dr. Shabani said that more than 4,500 children in Tanzania are born with hydrocephalus (head swollen) and spinal bifida problems every year but it was only 1,000 among those who are able to access treatment. 

He said, if hydrocephalus is not treated can led to brain damage, a loss in mental and physical abilities, and even death.

With early diagnosis and timely treatment most children recover successfully.

On the other hand, the team of specialist doctors from Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Bugango Medical Centre with the support of group of donors from Friends of Children with Cancer -Tanzania (FoCC), where in Mbeya to create awareness and building capacity to the Mbeya Referral Hospital so that it can become a satellite hospital.

The FoCC coordinated the Hydrocephalus and Spinal bifida screening camping in which they targeted to do examination to at least 30 children with the problem of neural tube defects (NTD) who under gone surgical operation by inserting shunt tubes.

The directors of FoCC Walter Miya and Janet Manoni together they said that it is the size of the problem that led them to establish mechanisms to help children with cancer and neural tube defects. 

"We did some research to find out what makes children with these problems to increase when we realized that the service is available at a few places in the country, others focused on stereotypes you contemplate such children were bewitched while others lack the money to send them into treatment if they are diagnosed," said Walter Miya and Janet Manoni. 

They said that camps have helped reduce the distance for children to get the necessary care and that many of them had previously been treated for NTD in Mwanza and Dar es Salaam.

The directors of FoCC further said, the problem of high water and swollen head may strike anyone even adults but children are vulnerable.

"Health care workers should ensure they educate mothers to attend the clinic when pregnant with one month old to receive folic acid drugs and use them carefully within four weeks earlier, and also educate the pros and cons they get if they do not use folic acid ," said Miya. 

Miya said, the women should recognize that these drugs are essential to their unborn children. 

Rukia James (32) a resident of Mbozi who was admitted at Mbeya Referral Hospital in the children’s surgical ward, she said she gave birth at home without midwife only to found out that her baby had a growth of flesh in the back.

Rukia said after realizing that her baby was born with some defect, she went to Mbozi district hospital where she was later on told to Mbeya Referral Hospital for further medication.

She told guardian reporter yesterday that her child who is only five months old now, was admitted at the hospital since on January 21 this year.

She heard about the neural tube defect screening camp at the hospital, that her baby was medically operated with the growth of flesh (spinal bifida) in the back.

She said that her baby is now doing well and problem of crying anytime was over after having a successful operation from camping doctors.

However, more than 20 children under went surgical operation since the start of screening exercise and mothers came all the way from Njombe, Iringa and Mbeya regions.

It is unfortunate that Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital has no CT (computed tomography) Scan and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) Scan machines for making medical examination inside the brain although the hospital two qualified radiologists.

According to the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital acting executive director, Thomas Isdory, they are using the CT scan from around the city which owned by the private hospital.

Isdory said they cannot afford the buy a CT scan machine as the hospital instead they asked the government through the ministry of health to buy one for them.

He said that CT scan can cost 1.5bn/- which the hospital alone cannot afford to buy.

He said that who shows any of the signs and symptoms neural tube defect should see a doctor right away.

“The doctor will perform examinations, which may including a medical history and diagnostic tests like ultrasound, CT scan, of MRI- to get a clear picture of the inside of the brain, so we badly in need of those machine,” said the acting executive director, Thomas Isdory,

It is advised that government should invest much in infrastructure like CT scan and MRI scan machines that will enable the doctors to work properly.