Six children have died in four days in Eswatini while about 1,000 others have been treated for diarrhoea caused by the rota virus, a senior official said on Monday.
However, despite the deaths that occurred at two health centres in the southern part of the country, the Ministry of Health has not declared this as an outbreak.
“The nation must not panic because this is not an outbreak and the situation is under control. These fatal cases are a result of delayed treatment,” Director of Health Services, Vusi Magagula said,
The official said the government was ready to handle the diarrhoea that strikes almost every year around the same season. Out of the 1 000 children aged five years and below, most were admitted to hospital.
In 2015 another rota virus-cased diarrhoea claimed the lives of 43 children and it was after that incident that the government introduced mandatory immunization against the virus for all children below the age of five.
BM/jn/APA