WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib.
By Joseph Lamin Kamara
A spokesman in the ministry of information, Abdulai Bayraytay says government cannot ask the World Health Organization to change the way it reports fatalities from the Ebola outbreak in the country.
His comments came after the Associated Press, AP, reported on 25 June, 2014 that the UN health body had announced it would change the way it gave reports on Ebola related deaths because the government of Sierra Leone had asked them to do so.
The way the deaths were reported in Guinea and Liberia, the other two countries hit by the outbreak, would remain unchanged, said WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib.
She was further quoted by the online news agency as saying: “They haven't asked to change their methodology, the only country that decided to change their methodology was Sierra Leone for now”.
Previously, probable and suspected deaths from Ebola were included in the count but from now on, only laboratory confirmed cases will be reported, reducing the death toll in Sierra Leone from 58 to 34 as of Tuesday 24 June.
Yesterday SkyNews put the current figures at 339 reported cases with 99 deaths. But a state address by the president broadcast on Wednesday 2 July, 2014 said otherwise.
“As at our update today, 388 cases have been tested, 199 laboratory confirmed cases, 65 confirmed deaths, 23 cases discharged. All of these cases occurred in Kailahun and Kenema districts,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the AP story also statedthat: “Sierra Leone’s press had criticized the government for reporting lower death rates than the WHO had initially been reporting.”
But the government spokesman told Politico yesterday that as a government “we have not asked WHO to change its methodology of reporting on Ebola.We don’t have that power.”
Bayraytay said WHO and other international bodies were their partners in the fight against the Ebola outbreak, adding that “no sovereign country has the right to dictate to WHO.”
He confirmed that the government had disagreements with some statistics on cases of Ebola deaths and advised the press, in particular, to refrain from reporting “inflated figures.”
(C) Politico 02/07/14
