By Kemo Cham
The Ministry of Health has announced the end of mandatory swabbing of all dead bodies, a policy introduced at the height of the Ebola epidemic.
The announcement on Tuesday marked the end of about eight months of intense surveillance since Sierra Leone was first declared free of the Ebola virus transmission by the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 17, 2015.
Swabbing involves the collection of a sample from a corpse and testing it to ascertain the cause of death. This was required to identify the Ebola infected from the rest, all geared towards ending the virus’ transmission.
The 2014-216 Ebola epidemic in West Africa first started in Guinea and spilled over to Liberia and then Sierra Leone. There were sporadic outbreaks elsewhere in West Africa, including Mali and Nigeria. In all over 11, 000 people died from the disease among over 28, 000 cases, making it the worst outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever disease on record.
Sierra Leone recorded its first case of the viral infection on May 25 2014. The first transmission was declared over on November 17, 2015. But just about two months later the country again recorded a new case on January 14. It was declared, for the second time, free of the viral transmission on March 17 2016.
Experts had warned that once a country had an Ebola outbreak, it was bound to reoccur, and that prompted the post-WHO declaration intense surveillance which ended on June 30, 2016.
Throughout the period, people were required to report all deaths for swabbing. Suspected cases were supposed to be investigated and accorded the ‘Safe and Dignified’ burial.
“June 30 was an important day for Sierra Leone because we were able to implement …the President’s directive to end the mandatory swabbing that kept all of us safe during the Ebola outbreak…,” said Dr Foday Daffae, Director of Disease Surveillance at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS).
Dr Daffae, who is also the head of the Public Health National Emergency Operation Center (EOC), told a press conference on Tuesday that while the mandatory swabbing had ended, the ministry intended to continue with swabbing of suspected and unexplained cases of deaths. He said the public would also be required to continue reporting all deaths, regardless of their causes.
The Health ministry said despite the scaling down of the Ebola response activities and personnel, it would maintain a “residual number” of people to ensure proper surveillance of not just Ebola but all other potential epidemic.
The 117 call facility will remain in operation to receive all calls and facilitate appropriate responses to the public’s request, EOC officials said.
“We want to work with our communities to prevent future outbreaks so even though we have ended mandatory swabbing, we ask that you continue to report all deaths to 117 or your nearest health facility,” Daffae said, adding that reporting deaths would help Sierra Leone maintain its real time death register. And to enforce this, he said, death certificates and burial permits would remain mandatory requirements for any burial service to take place.
© Politico 15/07/16
