By Umaru Fofana
Twenty-one-month-old Kadiatu Kargbo and her mother Isatu Conteh were discharged and declared Ebola-free on Saturday after two weeks of treatment at the Hastings centre (PTS 1).
A five-year-old and an 11-year-old were also discharged as part of six people discharged at a ceremony at the police academy where the treatment centre is located.
Mother and daughter could not return to their Jalloh Lane residence in the eastern Freetown suburb of Wellington because their home was still in quarantine. Once that is lifted on Saturday it will be disinfected and their clothes burned.
Kadiatu’s father and some other siblings succumbed to the disease and she and her mother have had to stay with a relative until the quarantine is lifted when they face their new destiny.
They were driven there inside a Milton Margai School for the Blind bus under the aegis of the ministry of social welfare.
The six bring to 511 the number of patients who have recovered at the centre since it was opened on 19 September last year, according to Dr Santigie Sesay, the Centre Coordinator.
Dr Sesay said they had lost 246 people with only one confirmed case still remaining at the centre and hoped there would be no need for any more admissions or discharges, praying for the virus to be extinguished. He however warned against complacency saying a single case was what had multiplied to the thousands of cases that had plagued the country.
A spokesman for the health ministry, Jonathan Abass Kamara thanked the staff at the centre saying their contribution to the fight against Ebola was legendary, something he said President Ernest Bai Koroma was aware and boastful of. Kamara said their sacrifices would not go in vain while warning the discharged women and children to stay away from sex and breast-feeding their babies for three months, a point underscored by a representative from the ministry of social welfare.
In her brief statement, one of the discharged women, Marie Kamara thanked the caregivers for the treatment and care, and expressed gratefulness to God for enabling the medics save their lives.
They each left with a discharge package which included a bag of rice and some condiments, clothing and a mattress which were donated by several charity organisations including the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
OSIWA Country Officer, Joe Pemagbi said they had supported over eight organisations working on Ebola throughout the country and had been working towards reducing the number of new infections.
He said they’d funded organisations such as the all-female lawyer group, LAWYERS, Young Professions and others who had donated to discharged patients in the past.
Pemagbi said they had also visited quarantined homes in places like Mabella to help those isolated, as well as the Don Bosco Fambul who providing care for Ebola orphans.
He encouraged the survivors to be strong and resist any attempt to stigmatise them.
“Survivors should be treated as the normal human beings that they are and should not be stigmatised by society” he urged the public.
© Politico 03/02/15
