By Draxon Maloya
Operation Smile has temporarily suspended surgeries on young ones and people with various mouth deformities in compliance with strict measures laid down by government in the work of fighting the spreading of coronavirus .
The Regional Coordinator for Operation Smile in the northern region, Frank Ezra Duwa disclosed this at St John’s Hospital in Mzuzu on Tuesday when his organisation invited it’s clients to appreciate the progress of it’s operations following a number of interventions it has embarked on in the region.
Duwa said, instead of conducting operations on the patients who have cleft lip and pallet, the organisation will only concentrate on assessing the patients while providing other necessities that will enable the patients not to lose food nutrition values in the absence of it’s operations.
“We have temporarily suspended surgeries on patients with cleft lip and pallet who were suppose to be conducted this year following strict measures put in place by government that each and everyone is following in the fight against coronavirus, so we shall only concentrate on patient sequencing programme,” Duwa said.
One of the beneficiaries whose six month old baby has cleft pallet, Annah Nyirenda commended Operation Smile for enabling the patients to receive treatment at no cost saying that is enabling her movement to receive treatment because all the transport expenses bare reimbursed.
“I would like to thank operation Smile because it has enabled my baby who was born with cleft lip and pallet to receive treatment, because I stay in Rumphi District but I am able to come for my baby’s treatment because all the transportation costs are full squared,” Nyirenda said.
Patients with cleft lip and pallet are still being referred to health facilities in other regions of the country be it Kamuzu or Queen Elizabeth Central Hospitals because the Mzuzu Central Hospital has no capacity to handle surgeries for patients with such challenges.