By Mohamed T Massaquoi
Residents of Sorogbeima chiefdom in the Pujehun district, east of Sierra Leone, have expressed frustration over the shortage of drugs in the entire peripheral health units, PHUs, in that part of the country.
Speaking to Politico, councillor of Ward 325 in the area, Francis Ngellay, said there were about ten PHUs in the whole chiefdom but all of them were without the required drugs since September this year.
He added that the district health management team had not played any role to supply drugs “which was a disappointment to us,” and called on the urgent intervention of government.
Ngellay also said that their chiefdom was known as “a zone for cholera and diarrhoea but the medical sector is not treating our concerns with seriousness.” He said even with the fight against Ebola they were being neglected by the taskforce, adding that there were over 40 illegal crossing points along the Mano River Union border into Sierra Leone.
The councillor said they had been “naturally quarantined” and their major sources of income had been Liberia through Kenema, also affected by Ebola Virus Disease. He said if Ebola failed to kill them they would die of hunger.
Civil society chairman in the chiefdom, Amour Pabai, told Politico that it would be difficult to control border crossing as the two countries were engaged in farming activities and that since the water table reduced, people walked into the river and crossed to either countries.
He also expressed disappointment at the shortage of drugs in the chiefdom, adding that said they were not considered being part of the district. He said the cost of a bag of rice had increased to Le 190,000.
The district medical officer in Pujehun, Doctor David Bome, confirmed the allegation of shortage in drugs availability in the chiefdom, adding that it was also due to the fact that the road network was very bad and that they had smaller vehicles which couldn’t reach the zone. He however said that there were some drugs at the district drugs store but the means to transport them was lacking.
© Politico 13/11/14
