By Michael Gwarisa
Zimbabwe’s renowned Cardiothoratic surgeon, Dr Wilfred Muteweye has raised alarm over the growing number of babies developing Lipoid pneumonia, HealthTimes has learnt.
Lipoid pneumonia is an inflammatory lung condition caused by aspiration of oils. In Zimbabwe, however, parents administer or give their infants cooking oil as a home remedy to help with colic pain relief and colds.
Speaking to this publication in an Interview, Dr Muteweye said the damage caused by cooking oil and at times anointing oil is difficult to treat.
Lipoid pneumonia has been noted to be on the increase in the paediatric population in Zimbabwe,” said Dr Muteweye.
The main cause according to Dr Muteweye is the exposure of the children to cooking due to some reasons which include Oil being erroneously given by parents to treat abdominal colic and oil given for treatment of constipation. Other reasons include traditional medicine practitioners who also prescribe it and churches who also give it as anointing oil.
“The mothers then either spray it into the nostrils or give it orally. Unlike in adults, infants can have oropharyngeal discoordination which causes the oil to go into the airway. In addition, infants can suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disorder (up to 70% of them), which can result in aspiration of swallowed oil,” added Dr Muteweye.
Lipoid pneumonia symptoms can vary significantly among individuals, ranging from asymptomatic to severe, life-threatening diseases.
