By Rosette Nandutu,

Authorities in Bukedea district have disclosed that the district has high cases of sickle cell disease.

This was revealed by Evelyn Mwesigwa, the Program Officer, Uganda National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services during the district engagement meeting that was chaired by the Resident District Commissioner Bukedea, Hajji Imran Muluga and attended by the LCV Chairman, Moses Olemukan among other district officials.

Mwesigwa revealed that a three months survey carried out between the months of March, May and June in the three sampled schools of Bukedea life line, Bukedea secondary school and Bukedea comprehensive academy school had 1871 children testing positive.

Mwesigwa said undetected cases of the sickle cell virus happens simply because of the ignorance of people in the community to conduct tests for sickle cells, yet the virus is terrible and therefore appealed to the district leadership to take serious action on sensitizing the masses on the dangers of the sickle cell virus.

Hajji Imran Muluga who chaired the meeting, tasked leaders for a collaboration effort.adding that, since the report is alarming, there is need for the government to improvise test kits to the health facilities and train community surveillance teams.