Longorot Epuu’s 8-year-old niece, his namesake, was sick.
Epuu quickly recognized the signs of kala-azar, the “black fever,” while visiting his brother’s family in a neighboring village in Kenya’s vast, arid Turkana region in September of last year. The younger Longorot had a high fever and a swollen stomach, and she was very weak. Also known as visceral leishmaniasis, kala-azar is caused by female sandfly bites and predominantly impacts children under the age of 15. But Epuu didn’t know that when left untreated, the disease attacks vital organs and is fatal in 95 percent of cases.
Still, he could tell something was very wrong. He picked up his niece and drove her on his motorbike to the local hospital 6 miles away. On the sixth day of her stay, she died.
“We were shocked and completely shaken,” Epuu said. “It was just too late.”
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