JUBA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese doctors have commended the UN for lending support towards the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases that are rampant in the world's youngest republic.
Health personnel from the world body won accolades from local officials during the celebrations to mark UN Day in Juba on Wednesday, for providing voluntary medical services to populations affected by infectious diseases.
Saki Edward Laku, health officer working with the South Sudan's Ministry of Health, lauded the UN health agencies for providing equipment, drugs and mosquito nets to help tame spread of malaria that is a leading cause of deaths in the country.
"Malaria is the cause of many deaths in South Sudan, especially among children, pregnant women as well as lactating mothers and the elderly," Laku told Xinhua.
He revealed that 70 percent of patients had malaria during routine screening in endemic regions hence creating a public health crisis.
"We are very happy today that we are here to help our people get life-saving interventions. We have almost vetted 95 patients and we are still continuing screening and we have found almost everybody tested malaria positive," said Laku.
He revealed that use of malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) for detecting evidence of malaria parasites in patients' blood has proved effective.
"We give patients anti-malarial drugs which is the first line of treatment for the disease and in case of severe cases, we refer patients to the Juba Teaching Hospital for further treatment," said Laku.
Michael May, a local clinical officer working with Jubek's Primary Health Care (PHC), said they teamed up with health partners like WHO and UNICEF to assess the therapeutic response to anti-malarial drugs based on patients' conditions.
"Our health partners today really helps us to offer free medical consultation services and treatment to our people and we are very grateful for the support," said May.
David Shearer, head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, said all the UN agencies working in Juba will never give up on providing emergency aid to the population affected by outbreak of diseases.
United Nations Day is marked on Oct. 24, in commemoration of the day in 1945 when the UN Charter was ratified by 51 countries.
South Sudan became the 193 member of the UN after it gained independence in 2011 from Sudan following a referendum.
