By Mustapha Kamara
Moyamba’s district medical officer has expressed concern over the low number of patients turning up at different Peripheral Health Units and other hospitals in the district due to the fear of the Ebola disease.
Giving an update on the disease in the district, Dr. Dennis Mark said the district had registered nine confirmed cases of Ebola as at last week, with five deaths.
He said they had set up taskforce committees and surveillance teams to follow up on alerts from the public and collect specimen to verify and produce results about suspected Ebola cases. He added that medical personnel had also been educating the public through radio discussion programmes.
“Our major focus now is to make the messages clear and to correct misunderstanding among people in the district”, the DMO said, adding that they had encouraged people to wash their hands regularly with Dettol or chlorine.
He said they had also trained the burial team and other locals in the district, while religious leaders and contact tracers had been equipped with mobile phones for easy communication.
(C) Politico 04/09/14
