By Kemo Cham
The National Ebola Response Center (NERC) has unveiled a semen testing programme as part of efforts to prevent transmission of the Ebola virus through sexual intercourse.
There has been suspicion over the chance of survivors of the deadly viral disease infecting their partners when they engage in unprotected sex.
Until now, the only known scientific theory was that particles of the virus are found in the semen three months after recovery. But NERC said results from latest study ongoing [at the 34 Military Hospital] in Freetown indicate that the viral particles remain even longer in some people.
The semen testing is a part of what the NERC has termed ‘Operation Shield’, which is also part of a larger initiative aimed at helping Sierra Leone`s over 4000 survivors of the disease smoothly reintegrate into society.
“Survivors` needs are pressing and what`s happening now is fragmented,” Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Director of Planning at NERC, told Politico. She said in an interview that ‘Operation Shield’ had been designed to serve as an umbrella for a coordinated response to the survivors` need. She said while officially there were 4051 survivors, in the data base at the NERC they had 3500 survivors.
Ms Aki-Sawyerr said they had been told by the Sierra Leone Association of Ebola Survivors (SLEAS) that their rank had been swollen by people with fake discharged certificates posing as survivors.
Through ‘Operation Shield’, NERC intends to verify who is really a survivor, issue them identification cards, and train survivor advocates to provide individual and peer group support to them and their partners.
The semen testing is just the end product of the ‘Comprehensive Package for Ebola Survivors’, explained NERC`s Chief Executive Officer Rtd Alfred Palo Conteh, at his weekly press briefing last Wednesday.
He said ‘Operation Shield’ was designed to provide rapid response to the survivors` needs.
The programme will be implemented in phases. Bombali and Port Loko districts and the Western Area have been identified for pilot projects before rolling out to the rest of the country. Tests are already being carried out in three wards in the Western Area.
The three districts were chosen because they were the most recent to have recorded Ebola cases, said CEO Conteh.
But the thought of extracting semen from grown up men certainly adds a whole new dimension to the fight against stigmatization. There are the unanswered questions like how the semen is extracted, or what is done with the semen.
Both the NERC boss and its Planning Director denied that the semen component is any form of study.
They insist that amidst the concern of stigmatization remains the core issue of protection for the survivors themselves and their partners.
Survivors will be tested and advised on whether to engage in sex or whether to use protection like condom if they insist on engaging in sex, said Ms Aki-Sawyerr.
“As the CEO of the NERC, I am committed to ending the EVD outbreak in this country, and I [am] committed to keeping all Sierra Leoneans safe in our fight against the Ebola Virus Disease in this country,” added her boss.
(C) Politico Online 12/10/15
