President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma on Saturday 15th August paid a working visit to Kambia and Port Loko districts to assess the impact of the respective district response teams and get firsthand information on efforts to move towards a resilient zero as the country makes a final push in eradicating the disease from every corner of Sierra Leone.
Delivering a short statement during the visit, President Koroma told the people of Kambia that although they have done tremendously well to fend off the virus from the district, Ebola has not been completely eradicated from the country. He lauded the efforts of the district Ebola committee and the Kambia descendants union in the fight to stop the transmission of the disease.
President Koroma cited the case of Liberia which was declared by WHO as Ebola free after 42 days, later recorded a new positive case. He urged them to continue to be vigilant and continuously be in a state of alert in order to end the outbreak. "If Ebola exists on any side of the border, it means that the disease is still with us," he warned.
The president expressed optimism that by the end of August, the country might begin the count down to zero for the next 42 days, and God willing, Sierra Leoneans will celebrate a joyful Christmas this year.
He pointed out that government has launched the post Ebola Recovery Plan to restore livelihoods and get people back on track, saying that everyone should get involved to help monitor the implementation of the recovery programme.
Giving an update on the response against Ebola, District Medical Officer Dr Foday Sesay revealed that the cumulative number of positive cases since the beginning of the outbreak in Kambia is 253. He noted that there has been no new case of Ebola since 10th July, 2015, and currently Kambia has gone for 35 days without a positive case.
Dr Sesay also said the district has gone for 26 days ebola-free since the last case was discharged from the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC), and the last quarantined home was discharged in Laya Gboro in Samu Chiefdom (Camp Hope) on 31st July, 2015.
Despite zero reporting, Kambia still maintains high level of vigilance with new plans to improve the response.
"The integrated response team continues to respond to live and death alerts and also safe and dignified burial with testing of all buried corpse still continue," Dr.Sesay explained.
In Port Loko, Dr Tom Sesay, the acting District Medical Officer said that the district has gone for 33 days without a positive case and 20 days since the last case was discharged from the Ebola Treatment Center.
According to Dr Sesay, infection, prevention and control (IPC) is very pivotal in attaining and maintaining zero transmission. He confidently said that staff in all 106 PHUs and 4 secondary hospitals in Port Loko have been trained on IPC, triage, identification and isolation of suspected Ebola patients in collaboration with WHO, CDC, GOAL and IMC.
Comments