Child dies in Ponta Gea, Beira, after taking pills found lying on a street -Mozambique

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Child dies in Ponta Gea, Beira, after taking pills found lying on a street -Mozambique

5:48 CAT | 05 Apr 2017

Diário de Moçambique

A child named Sofia Águedo, aged four years old, died on Friday afternoon after she found and swallowed pills found on Av. Mouzinho de Albuquerque, in Beira’s Ponta-Gêa neighbourhood.

According to an eyewitness, the victim, Dino Bernardo, was playing with two other children near where several boxes of medications were lying at around 2:00 p.m.

“I saw the children pick the medication. But then we told them to put them down, I don’t think did, because, unfortunately, one child lost her life. As I heard it, she started to feel bad, and was taken to the Ponta-Gêa Health Centre but lost her life hours after returning home. We need to find who put or left the medicine there,” he said.

The child’s mother, Teresa Ebristo, said that her daughter returned home feeling ill. “When I saw her looking so weak, I went to buy sugar, thinking it she was hungry.” But after giving her some cereal, she decided to take her to hospital. “The tests were negative. They prescribed paracetamol and multivitamins,” she said.

Arriving home, the mother gave the child the medicine stipulated, but a little while later the child succumbed to the poisoning and lost her life at around 6:00 p.m..

Sofia’s friends, who also took the pills, but in smaller amounts, were sick at the health centre, but were discharged.

The mother condemned whoever left drugs on a public highway without thinking about the children playing there.

“The authorities should look into this, and investigate and identify who it was who left drugs on the street where many people pass by,” she said.

Source: Diário de Moçambique