This is from the PFIF —
Liberia: Ebola Virus Survivors Instinct - Sex Eclipses Dog Theory
http://allafrica.com/stories/201507151807.html
Bettie Johnson
A family of 16 residing on the A. B. Tolbert Road in Paynesville is the next home to be quarantined by the Ministry of Health for link to a confirmed case of the deadly Ebola virus, the resurgence of the virus after the country was declared Ebola free on May 9 by the World Health organization. Residing in an unfinished House the family is under quarantine after a family member and friend to a 17 year boy who corpse tested positive ran from Margibi and came to his family in Monrovia.
The suspected case, name withheld by health officials who is currently at the Ebola treatment unit came to his mother in Monrovia and was treated by his mother, a Registered Nurse for malaria. The boy who was later confirmed positive was treated by both his mother and older brother but his mother was more exposed to the virus that led to her death. Following the death of the woman, the family has been placed under quarantine by Health authorities but those under quarantined with no appropriate monitoring in place. Those quarantined are seen roaming from one place to another.
Family faces rejection
The children of the quarantined family are facing rejection as they are denied from playing with other children in the community. Waigolo Mulbah, is a sibling to the late Ebola victim. He says the Ambulance took his sister after his cousin was taken to the ETU. He narrated that though his sister did not experience any signs or symptoms suspected to be Ebola but due to fears, she could not eat upon the visitation of Ebola workers at their home.
“She never showed any signs or symptoms of Ebola. We were here out of fear our sister did not eat for 5 days, she was so scare and so the ETU workers came for her days after they told us she had die,” said Mulbah. Mulbah and 15 others had gone over 11 days, hoping to reach the required 21 days period to be allowed free movement but they had to restart the quarantine process following the death of his sister.
“She went to the ETU, and after she died they started our quarantine again, for what we know now is the boy is still alive”, Mulbah told FPA. He said though the Ministry of Health says they are quarantined, there is nothing to show that they are prevented from moving around in the community.”We are here and stigmatized by the community, but the Health Ministry says we are quarantined, but nothing to show we are being quarantined. The community members are pointing fingers at us the whole day” - Waigolo Mulbah, lamented.
On the issue of movement, he told FPA that he is a student of University of Liberia and other Children under quarantine were going to school initially but community members widely stigmatized them prompting the Ministry of Health to mandate the community dwellers to serve as watchdogs against their movement.
“Here they treat us like dogs, we are not respected, though they bring us water and food but it is a distance from us, even if we throw things down like the gloves that they used today on us, it mistakenly went in the bush which is far from them; but they demanded that the gloves be removed or else they wouldn’t supply us anything, “he added.
Mulbah confirmed that he and his sick cousin (sick boy) lengthily interacted upon his return to Monrovia saying, “Up today’s date I have not experienced signs nor symptoms of Ebola, so where is this Ebola now”.Deputy Incident Manager and Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Francis Kateh told a Ministry of Information regular press briefing Tuesday that since July 12 the country has 6 confirmed Ebola cases.
He said: “What is important is during the fight we have tried to contain the virus in Margibi County but we knew that there were contacts made from the cases in Margibi and a place in Monrovia and so we began an immediate step and that is a voluntary precautionary center put in place.” He boasted that contact tracing is active as all of the contacts are traced and monitored by health authorities.
The Chief Medical Officer said it was shocking that contacts are not honest adding that they are the basis for the increase in cases. “What is shocking is that we have to realize we need to be open and need to be honest with ourselves, and it’s through honesty we can stop this disease.”
Dr. Kateh added “If you are a contact tell the health care workers that you are a contact, then you will have people monitoring you but you have to be honest with them, now we have 4 cases at the ETU and they all doing well, now it is six confirmed cases, two deceased”. The Deputy Health Minister disclosed that there are 124 contacts actively in Margibi, 16 in Monrovia, and said the number could fluctuate on grounds that there is ongoing investigation.
“We have gone a step further because we have asked the county health officers to be on the alert, we are not saying the other counties have contacted it but we need to alert them so that we wouldn’t experience the previous outbreak,” he said. Dr. Kateh continued: “We have been doing this continuously, the rapid response team will be set at all times, we have the expertise and we are asking the public not to conceal information from us because we have the technique and we understand what is it to put under this control.”
Not slipping our control
He said the Ministry has everything under control as the public has been warned not to shield sick or dead people in homes or hospitals. Dr. Kateh added that sometimes the acceptance of health workers to receive critically ill people might also cause the increase of the virus in the country. “From the cases, we have enlightened health care workers because their action could cause a situation to increase cases, we keep saying, if you have fever don’t take Paracetamol, the dishonesty could lead to more problems, we cannot babysit everyone, so if that trust is built the disease will be contained,” he appealed
Not an animal source
Since the new outbreak the Ministry and Health authorities are yet to tell the public the source of the new infection with fingers pointed at a dead dog which those now tested positive were all said to have eaten but Dr. Kateh disclosed that the virus is not linked to eating of the dog by the dead 17 year old boy and others in Margibi. Dr. Kateh said the Ministry is investigating to know the source of the new infection.
“We are conducting investigation; we are getting to the source until we can scientifically proof it. We also established that it has not come from Guinea or Sierra Leone because their strains are different from the new outbreak and hence after getting the result we will inform the public”. The Active Case Finders are credited for finding the new case in Margibi, but Dr. Netty Joe of the United Nations Development Programme, head of Active Case Finders in Montserrado disclosed that finders are now discourage to work as they are told that their job is voluntary.
She said WHO was taking the lead in the program but turned it over to the UNDP to manage but unfortunately, UNDP told her that there is no funding to continue the program something she said will result to the increase of cases as finders are the major source of tracing contacts of Ebola. “We started with a very huge number and so with no funding you have to cut the number down. We did a scale down mostly on the high risk areas namely New Kru Town, Bong Mines Bridge and in Sinkor we reduced that to 50% because no funds,” she added.
Dr. Joe continued: “Frankly speaking we studied the situation thoroughly, we need someone in the community surveillance, and it was done through studies and the UNDP and WHO said they have decided to redirect the efforts to Guinea and Sierra Leone so the project ended June so we are only paying them for May and June”. She said finders and heads were informed of the problem and she has appealed to them to volunteer something she said is challenging, as the Active Case Finding is a job creation for young people.
Said Dr. Joe: “The figure we have was 4, 100 but we cut it down to 1,700 persons so we are covering the entire Montserrado; for July no funding yet, and it is so hard to do, we in the field know the importance of them and if you getting money from donors and they say they can’t do anything, we hope to have new donors to help contain the spread of the virus.
Similar strain, says WHO
The WHO has indicated that as part of the investigation into the source of this new cluster of infections, samples taken from the first person found to have Ebola were sent to the Liberian National Reference Laboratory for genetic sequencing where tests on these samples have shown that the virus is genetically similar to viruses that infected many people in Margibi County more than six months ago, in late 2014.
Stated WHO: “This information provides important insights into the probable origin of the virus responsible for this new flare-up in Liberia. Because the virus appears to be related to the one previously circulating in Liberia, it is unlikely that this recurrence has been caused by virus imported from infected areas of Guinea or Sierra Leone. It also makes it unlikely that this has been caused by a new emergence from a natural reservoir, such as a bat or other animal”. According to the WHO, the genetic sequencing on samples from the four other cases in this new outbreak is underway.
Presently, the WHO says 149 people have been identified as contacts and are being monitored closely. Four of these people have tested positive and are being treated for Ebola virus disease in Ebola treatment centers. As with all cases, the number of contacts has been fluctuating. Some are true contacts, while others are not. When a suspected case is confirmed as negative, all contacts associated with that case are de-listed, which is why the number of contacts has declined this week.
The WHO has disclosed that detailed clinical, epidemiological and laboratory investigations are on-going to identify the initial source of infection. This includes the genetic sequencing that has suggested this virus is linked to virus circulating in earlier chains of transmission in Liberia. Liberia, the WHO said has undertaken the relevant planning to prepare for and respond to the recurrence of Ebola. But the latest death and scores of quarantine going on simultaneously is expected to put the government’s readiness to the test as the resurging virus continues to spread.