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UGANDA/ CHOLERA
STORY: UGANDA/ CHOLERA
TRT: 2.06
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: LUGANDA/ ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 5 NOVEMBER 2009, HAMUKUNGU, UGANDA
1. Close up, girl filling bucket in lake
2. Wide shot, fishermen preparing their boats next to lake
3. Med shot, man fills bucket next to boat in lake
4. Med shot, cholera ward in hospital
5. Close up, bed with hole in the middle
6. SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Mother of Cholera infected child:
"My daughter was getting water from the lake and didn’t boil it. That’s how she got sick."
7. Med shot, woman sweeping outside her house
8. SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Mother of Cholera infected child:
"Now we’re buying bottled water from the store, and only using water from the bore hole and lake for cleaning."
9. Wide shot, hospital building
10. Close up, doctor standing in front of IV stand
11. Med shot, man lying in bed
12. Close up, IV drip
13. Wide shot people filling buckets in river
14. Close up, girl filling bucket in river
15. SOUNDBITE (English), Paul Semakula, UNICEF:
"I think the one issue that we’re not addressing is the behavior change. We’re not looking at the attitude of these people. We’re not looking at what they think about cholera. To them, cholera seems to be something that happens every year. Their perspective is ‘cholera is not dangerous.’ After all, you get treated in two or three days and you feel fine. So they don’t think it’s something they need to fight within their communities or households."
16. Med shot, cholera poster
17. Close up, cholera poster (shows man washing hands)
18. SOUNDBITE (English), Paul Semakula, UNICEF:
"What UNICEF is doing currently is we support the local governments with basic logistics that can help to improve, one: the water, sanitation and hygiene services, so we are providing them with items like water-storage facilities, water-purification material. We are providing them with support to protect the water sources they have currently."
19. Med shot, man standing talks with woman sitting on ground near dishes
20. Med shot, woman prepares food on the ground as boy walks past in the distance carrying water buckets
21. Close up, latrine
22. Med shot, mother and daughter standing in doorway
23. Close up, daughter’s face
24. Med shot, boy pumps water
Collecting water from Lake George is a common practice in Hamukungu, Uganda one of the reasons this district has shown an endemic pattern of cholera over the past several years.
Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestines, and is spread by water contaminated with human excrement. In areas lacking clean drinking water and proper waste disposal, the combination can be deadly. Last year, cholera infected more than 500 people in this area, and killed about a dozen people.
This woman nearly lost a daughter to cholera.
SOUNDBITE (Luganda) Mother of Cholera infected child:
"My daughter was getting water from the lake and didn’t boil it. That’s how she got sick. Now we’re buying bottled water from the store, and only using water from the bore hole and lake for cleaning."
When the family sought treatment for her daughter, a health worker advised them about buying the bottled water, or at the very least, boiling it.
Despite massive efforts to improve the situation, the cases, and the deaths, keep mounting, especially during the rainy season, when waste is often carried into rivers and lakes, where people continue to collect drinking water.
SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Semakula, UNICEF:
"I think the one issue that we’re not addressing is the behavior change. We’re not looking at the attitude of these people. We’re not looking at what they think about cholera. To them, cholera seems to be something that happens every year. Their perspective is ‘cholera is not dangerous.’ After all, you get treated in two or three days and you feel fine. So they don’t think it’s something they need to fight within their communities or households."
UNICEF is helping spread information throughout the community about proper hygiene practices, as well as exploring legislative action that would protect people from eating contaminated food, and require each household to have a latrine.
SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Semakula, UNICEF:
"What UNICEF is doing currently is we support the local governments with basic logistics that can help to improve, one: the water, sanitation and hygiene services, so we are providing them with items like water-storage facilities, water-purification material. We are providing them with support to protect the water sources they have currently."
Cholera is a household disease, and if it’s to be defeated, it must be defeated at the household level.
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