Dear reader,
For many days (or years for some of you), I have kept this from you. I have lived with it and now it has to come out. It has become too heavy for my single shoulders. I sought help from High People and they turned a deaf ear. I was hurt. I picked up myself and continued.
I have Celiac Disease and this is my story:
CELIAC DISEASE IN AFRICA: Sorcery or mere Ignorance?
He stands aloof and watches absent-mindedly as the other children queue up for the food. He remembers his mother’s stern warning and the hunger pangs worsen. He knows the even a morsel of the delicious moth-watering cake will surely make him ill. Meet Mike (not real name), he was born with Celiac Disease.
Mike’s parents are well-off and highly educated. According to his mother, Mrs. Kintu (not real name); shortly after his birth, Mike started showing signs and his parents immediately took him to a European hospital for check-up. The doctors did an endoscopic exam and Mike was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Mike had to stick to a gluten free diet for the rest of his life. Mike’s life was spared.
Had Mike been born in a poor family, Mike would have eventually lost his life, just like the increasingly shocking numbers of African infants between the very minor age of 6 months and 4 years that die every year particularly in the East African region to Celiac Disease. The acute lack of awareness and subtle ignorance about the disease leads the devastated parents to think that sorcery or envious neighbors robbed them of their little ones.
Mike is alive today. He maintains a particularly lacking diet and survives on such food as vegetable, rice, beans, potatoes, small quantities of red meat, and fresh fruits. Granted, this may seem a rather healthy and outright fulfilling diet for an adult. However, as fate would have it, Mike is also lactose-intolerant. Essentially, this means that, in lay-man’s language, Mike is allergic to milk in its natural form and all its by-products.
Celiac Disease (CD) is a permanent inflammatory disease of the small intestine triggered by the ingestion of gluten-containing cereals in genetically predisposed individuals. It is a lifelong autoimmune intestinal disorder. Damage to the mucosal surface of the small intestine is caused by an immunologically toxic reaction to the ingestion of gluten and interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Celiac Disease (CD) is unique in that a specific food component, gluten, has been identified as the trigger. Gluten is the common name for the offending proteins in specific cereal grains that are harmful to persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in all forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn, and faro), and related grains: rye, barley, and triticale and must be eliminated.
CD was first described in the second century AD by Aretaeus of Cappadocia, a contemporary of the Roman physician Galen, who used the Greek word “koeliakos”, which means “suffering of the bowels”. However, only in 1888 AD did Samuel Gee of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital give the classical clinical description of CD.
The cause of Celiac Disease, also known as celiac sprue, or gluten sensitive enteropathy (GSE), is unknown. Celiac Disease occurs in 5-15% of the offspring and siblings of a person with celiac disease. In 70% of identical twin pairs, both twins have the disease. It is strongly suggested that family members be tested, even if asymptomatic. Family members who have an autoimmune disease are at a 25% increased risk of having celiac disease.
CD displays itself with the following symptoms:
• Recurring bloating, gas, or abdominal pain
• Chronic diarrhea or constipation or both
• Bone or joint pain
• Behavior changes/depression/irritability
• Vitamin K Deficiency
• Fatigue, weakness or lack of energy
• Delayed growth or onset of puberty
• Failure to thrive (in infants)
• Missed menstrual periods
• Infertility in male & female
• Spontaneous miscarriages
• Canker sores inside the mouth
• Tooth discoloration or loss of enamel
And many others.
In any case, there is little or no research on this disease in East Africa. The principal ideals behind this article are the commencement of an awareness program, with particular emphasis on CD and any other diseases that are not generally known about in the region. It is important that these are brought to the light and addressed duly by the concerned parties. There is also an urgent need to formally address the problem especially to those that can not possibly afford treatment and are generally ignorant.
I am in the process of establishing an awareness campaign concurrently with a patients’ association for Celiac disease in East Africa. I am still in infant stages and I am appealing for support and any form of assistance.
Creating Celiac Disease Awareness in Africa.
Additional information from the internet: http://www.celiac.org
This is yest to be published…..
Have a terrific weekend!!
Lionel Mugema 