By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
The head of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), Retired Major Palo Conteh has warned chiefs in the so-called ‘silent districts’ against under reporting of deaths.
Major Conteh said reports of the number of deaths in some districts suggested underreporting of the reality.
“The reporting of deaths and deaths alert rates in some district do not match the expected natural death rates per heads of population,” he told journalists at a press conference held in Freetown on Wednesday.
Palo Conteh suspected that illegal burial is ongoing. He said the ongoing situation denoted one of two things: either people were being lazy to report or that district heads were trying to hide something, which he said was “unacceptable.” He observed that in the last reporting period, Kono had the highest death reporting rate than Port Loko and Kambia which were still recording confirmed Ebola cases at the moment. He said that meant other districts that were still recording cases were not reporting deaths accordingly in their respective districts.
“I am giving one month notice to the PC’s and village heads in all districts, if there is not a significant improvement in the reporting of deaths and alerts in the silent areas …I will instruct the security forces to investigate what is going on.”
Conteh then urged the District Medical Teams (DERC) in all districts to draw plans that will address complacency in their respective districts and to work towards improving reporting of deaths and sick cases as well as increase surveillance.
Conteh said districts should stop being complacent of the Ebola disease and avoid being silent to reporting deaths, adding that a serious penalty would be leveled on any individual found wanting for carrying out illegal burials in any part in the country.
“I want to see reports of safe and dignified burials, I want to see the report of death alerts at the expected level and l want to see reports of surveillance and swabbing activities from all districts” he added.
Meanwhile, the retired major said the Western Urban District continued to pose a serious challenge in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus as the district was still recording confirmed Ebola cases in the past weeks at Magazine Wharf, Mou Wharf and Patton Street in Freetown.
However, he said Porto Loko and Kambia, which were recording confirmed cases, were now making significant progress.
For Port Loko, he said, the district had not had new cases except for those that were under quarantine.
Kambia has also been working hard and to great effect because there have been no new cases for the past eleven days and all quarantines have successfully come to an end, Conteh said.
The country in the past week recorded 3 confirmed Ebola, a figure said to be the lowest of all confirmed cases recorded in the past eight weeks.
(C) Politico 23/07/15
