At 30, Ms Enid Twamusiima cuts a posture and complexion of somebody twice her age.
On a sunny day in Kyakatooma Village, Busiriba Sub-county in Kamwenge District, she can hardly breast feed her six-month-old baby because of a painfully swollen left arm.
A decade battle
Twamusiima is among hundreds of residents of this area who are afflicted by elephantiasis – a disease characterised by thickening of the skin and gross swelling of underlying tissues, particularly in the legs, the scrotum, the vulva, the male genitals, the arms, and the breasts, that may have underlying accompanying internal damages to the kidneys and lymphatic system.
Twamusiima is among hundreds of residents of this area who are afflicted by elephantiasis – a disease characterised by thickening of the skin and gross swelling of underlying tissues, particularly in the legs, the scrotum, the vulva, the male genitals, the arms, and the breasts, that may have underlying accompanying internal damages to the kidneys and lymphatic system.
Twelve years since she was first diagnosed with the disease, Twamusiima has not got any medication that has successfully treated her condition.
Now at her mother’s home in Kyakatooma Village where she has just arrived on a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) with her two children, she is hoping her mother will help her with chores she cannot perform anymore.
Now at her mother’s home in Kyakatooma Village where she has just arrived on a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) with her two children, she is hoping her mother will help her with chores she cannot perform anymore.
Family breakups
“I have just come home to my mother so that she can nurse me, the situation at my marital home was unbearable” she says.
“I have just come home to my mother so that she can nurse me, the situation at my marital home was unbearable” she says.
“My husband took me to a hospital in Fort Portal, we later tried herbs but all in vain, I cannot dig, or wash my clothes, my husband has no job, I cannot dress or bathe myself, I am helped by others to breastfeed my baby, so my husband told me to go back home,” Twamusiima says.
She has been married for four years to Matayo Kyalimpa but her condition has been a detriment to her marital life.
Her two brothers, Francis Amooti, 32, and Emmanuel Arinaitwe, 27, are also suffering from elephantiasis with their legs and feet swollen.
Kamwenge District is one of the areas hit by a high prevalence of elephantiasis which is caused by filarial worms.
Kamwenge District is one of the areas hit by a high prevalence of elephantiasis which is caused by filarial worms.
In a neighbouring Kipucu village, also in Busiriba Sub-county, Yowanina Tumusiime, 55, has both feet swollen and smelly. She says she was divorced by her husband before he died in 2000.
“In 1996, he rejected me after my feet worsened by swelling and married other two women, I suffered a lot,” Tumusiime says.
“My daughters constructed for me another house, but I don’t have money for treatment because I no longer dig,” she adds.
Tumusiime says when she tries to walk in the neighbourhood, children throw stones at her thinking she is mad. This irritates her the most.
Elephantiasis is one of the world’s forgotten diseases occurring mainly in Tropical Africa where poverty is major concern.
Most people are unable to seek medical help during the early stage of the disease which only gets worse with time.
According to Ride Africa, a Fort Portal-based NGO, it recorded about 58 patients in Busiriba Sub-county in its survey conducted in October 2011 but says that there are still so many people in the area who hide due to stigma.
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