By Joseph Sevalie in Mattru Jong
A cholera outbreak in Dema chiefdom in the southern Bonthe District of Sierra Leone killed two male adults last week. Eight others, including women and children, are said to be in “a critical condition”. This is according to the Disease Surveillance Officer of the Bonthe District Health Management team, Sahr Jimmy.
Ministry of health figures also show that another two died in July. It is not clear where they died. These are the first recorded cases this year, promoting concerns that with at the peak of the rainy season things may spiral out of control if proper and adequate care is not taken.
Speaking to Politico in Mattru, Jimmy said that he was called and informed that ten people had been affected at the Tesana Health Post, the major health centre in Dema chiefdom.
He said a team of health ministry personnel and some World Vision staff were dispatched to the area to assess the severity of the situation. However, he added, by the time they arrived the two had died.
While the two fatalities had been brought into the hospital from neighbouring villages, most of those still admitted are from Tesana village itself.
Jimmy said they discovered that people living in Dema, a reverine chiefdom, live in very poor sanitary condition with open defecation a normal practise. He said people defecate on the banks of the river and at the peak of the rainy season the excreta are washed down into the river, their main source of drinking and cooking water.
There are hardly toilets in the chiefdom and the few water wells are mostly uncovered with the people refusing to drink from them because they say the water in them is too chlorinated for their liking.
Jimmy told Politico that he had reported the matter to the ministry of health in Freetown and had distributed the required available drugs at the various health posts in the district.
A source at the UN World Health Organisation says they are closely monitoring the cholera situation in the country with 371 cumulative cases reported across the country between 1 January and 4 August this year.
Last year 299 people were killed by the water-borne disease with nearly 23,000 cases recorded, among them 4,464 children under five years old.
(C) Politico 13/08/13
