By Prince J Musa in Kenema
As a way to help reduce the high fatality rate of Lassa fever cases in Kenema, the District Health Management Team (DHMT) with support from AFENET has engaged Paramount Chiefs and other stakeholders to help combat the disease.
The engagement was held at the DHMT hall, Maxwell Khobe Street in Kenema on the 17th of August 2023.
Addressing Paramount Chiefs and other partners, the District Medical Officer (DMO), Dr. Donald Samuel Grant said the team decided to engage the Paramount Chiefs first before undertaking any community venture to talk about the disease, saying health issues require collective efforts and collaboration.
He said before this time, Lower Bambara chiefdom was said to be prone to Lassa fever, but they have recently noticed that other chiefdoms have started recording cases of the disease which has raised concern to them as health practitioners.
Dr. Grant stated that they want to train health workers to be proactive in community surveillance to identify cases of Lassa fever in ensuring that the disease does not get out of control. He described Lassa fever as a communicable disease that can transfer from an infected person or sick to another person through contact or fluid exchange which is under the hemorrhagic family of diseases.
He advised the stakeholders present to clean their community and take care of their waste at all times and called on all especially young people to stop getting in contact with rats.
AFENET Lassa fever Project Coordinator, Dr. Anna Jammeh said they are working with the Ministry of Health through the DHMT to implement a project to ensure that health service delivery is improved in relation to diseases outbreak. She said they want to improve on detecting Lassa fever cases, hence the training of healthcare workers on how to manage and improve surveillance with the key objective of lessening the number of deaths.
‘’Once cases are detected and managed on time, there will be fewer deaths reported,’’ said Dr. Jammeh.
Paramount Chief (PC) of Niawa Chiefdom, Madam Mariama Tamia Jaward commended the DHMT in Kenema for the good job they are doing in the district. She said the disease was for some time unheard of until now.
PC Jaward stated that as traditional leaders they are going to institute bye-laws in their chiefdoms to clean their environment so that the disease’s spread in the district will be contained.
Paramount Chief of Languarama Chiefdom, Prince Mambu Pewai referred to the engagement as timely, noting that it is during the rains when people cultivate their swamps that they most times kill rats for food. He called for nurses in their chiefdoms to be trained on the symptoms for early detection.
He urged anybody that notices a fever to go to the health facility for tests and treatment and that anyone caught doing the home treatment will face the full force of the law and assured the DHMT that they are prepared to work with them to save the district.
Lassa fever is caused by a virus through its agent, rats and it contributes to high body temperature, weakness and later ends up with blood release from the part of the body which is the worst stage that will be difficult to manage.
Copyright © 2023 Politico
