Health officials in Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province in DR Congo, say they are alarmed at the rate of children being born with deformities.
Dr Kapya Mukeya, gynaecologist-obstetrician, said between January and September this year, five cases of children being born with total or partial absence of the internal abdominal wall were recorded in the province. This means the children are born with their intestines outside and they did not survive. Dr Mukeya also said there have been several cases of children born with two sexes, noting that the parents of these new-borns with deformities work in mining areas. According to him, these cases could be due to the high rate of radioactivity in the different mining areas and called for more studies to establish the real causes. He urged the Kinshasa-based nuclear centre to supervise the radio-activity surveillance operation in Katanga and the Congolese authorities to pay special attention to this phenomenon which is recurring in Lubumbashi.
