By Issa Aliga
For the first time in history, jiggers have invaded the home district of the president of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the most affected areas include and nearby Kiruhura.
Kazo district leaders led by the district chairman Rev. Samuel Katugunda yesterday visited five households hit by jiggers.
According to the district Chairman Rev. Katugunda, five families in two villages of Mataaba 1 and Mataaba 2 Ngomba parish Buremba Sub County, Kazo district are the most affected by the influx of jiggers.
He said that the leadership gave insecticides to families so that they could fumigate fleas which bring about jiggers.
The relief also included bars of soap which the leaders say will help the families to maintain cleanliness so that they can get rid of the epidemic.
Though cases of jiggers used to be common in the Busoga region, its outbreak was in Nov.2019 reported in Bushenyi district; Numba and Bumbaire parishes where some children were reportedly skipping school because of the infestation.
Early this year, it was also reported in the Kyamuhunga sub-county in Bushenyi district. Homesteads in the parishes of Swanzi, Kakoni, and Kibazi were the worst hit.
Ruth Monyenye a Kenyan researcher describes the jigger outbreak as an epidemic in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, though the epidemiology of the disease is poorly understood.
Monyenye further says that in most neglected tropical countries, the children and the elderly are most likely to be affected with jiggers.
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