HOW IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED Its February 2014 and news just hit the airwaves of an Ebola out break in Guinea. Our robust and no nonsense health minister has just summoned an urgent meeting with his excellency the president to appraise him about the situation. During the meeting the health minister discussed the state of health in the country and warned the president that where there is going to be an out break the countrys health department will not have the capacity to deal with it. However, the minister made the following urgent recommendations to the president for his government to embark on as precaution on the first level whilst government step up efforts to prepare at the boarder between Guinea and Salone. She recommended thus. An emergency task force be set up comprising health, immigration, local government, the police and military forces. A health task force be sent within the Guinea territory to liaise with their counterparts to observe first hand the situation, witness victims and leant a lot about the disease dynamics and spread. Health hubs be set in all the boarder crossing areas of Kailahun and kissy country manned by electricity plants. Getting the army and police involved in the set up and monitoring of traffic from the boarder regions. Depending on what the health team working in Guinea and studying the outbreak and spread the president has already announced to the nation that boarders between Salone and Guinea might close down by the end of March Health and teams from local government commence immediate and massive sensitization across communities in the boarder areas, meeting chiefs first hand and getting them involved in the project During the sensitization efforts locals are told what to expect when we start having the first cases. Live videos are screened in villages and towns about what the disease look like and death toll. Locals have the opportunity to see first hand how people died in Guinea and how they cannot go close to the sick and the dead Locals are taught what quarantine will look like in the first instance of an outbreak. Immigration keeping a close eye on the boarder areas as well as our airport. A temporal clinic open at the airport in case a passenger arrives with suspected fever. In March/April the first cases are reported in Kissy Teng. Locals already know the signs of ebola and with the presence of health hubs in the regions and their understanding of what to do with the first out breaks they start taking measures with the support of their chiefs. The local chiefs work in collaboration with the police and the army and they have maintained a healthy partnership. The president on the first news of cases in Kailahun ordered for a closure of our boarders with Guinea. The president and the task force agreed that all Ebola cases will be treated in the boarder region and no other hospital within the commercial transaction towns such as kenema will ever be used for the purpose. Government redoubles the sentization efforts and vigorously pursues international help. The president although closing the boarder with Guinea and Liberia continue the partnership with the two countries. Due to intended boarder closure when the decision was proposed at the task force meeting in February the government called a trade meeting and encouraged the private sector and business people to stock the country with goods incase of a boarder closure. When in March/April the boarder closed there are enough food and produce in the country. A price control watch dog set up with a mandate. It is made very clearly that those who profiteer as a result of boarder closure will go to jail. In August the Ebola outbreak in salone is still at a category 1 with only 35 death recorded so far and 55 news cases to deal with. Within the 55, 23 are making a full recovery. Businesses are still going on and many mining industries are still on the ground. Flights still operate but there are task forces at our airport to check new arrivals for fever. Every person entering in salone fill out forms to know with whom and where they are staying, address and telephone numbers of people who are their contacts in the country. Without these information provided to immigration passports of new arrivals are seized until new arrivals come back to immigration to provide the information. With all the above I have no fear about my trip to salone in December.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 01:29:34 +0000
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