Monrovia: Health Authorities in Liberia have rubbished speculations in the public that Liberia has recorded the first case of the resurgence of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), as a result of a female patient who reportedly entered the country from the Guinean border with Liberia.
Addressing the Ministry of Information Regular Press Briefing on Wednesday in Monrovia, Health Minister, Dr. Willimena Jallah, clarified that contrary to some media reports, Liberia is at the moment, safe with no resurgence of Ebola recorded so far.
“The Government of Liberia (GOL) has also put in place stringent measures; we have deployed health workers and security personnel at the major border points of our neighbors where cases are arising,” she told the MICAT press briefing.
However, Minister Jallah added that in the wake of such news from our neighbors, Liberians should now muster the courage to sensitize their various communities and raise awareness about the dangers of the Ebola Virus Disease and its preventive measures.
Minister Jallah also clarified that “There is no Ebola vaccine in Liberia as the World Health Organization(WHO), has clearly told us that Liberia cannot benefit from the vaccine because there is no case of Ebola in our country.”
The government, through the Ministry of Health’s clarification comes on the heal of widespread speculations in the public a suspected case of Ebola has been discovered at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town on the Bushrod Island.
According to the speculations, the patient who is currently at the Redemption Hospital was initially attended to by one Dr. Mohammed Swaray at MEDICOVER Clinic, Soul Clinic Branch.
The Doctor, according rumor, is currently in self-isolation and the clinic is under surveillance, awaiting lab result from Redemption.
Speculations had it that the patient returned from Nzerkoure, one of the EBOLA troubled spots in Guinea few days ago with high fever and running stomach and was on medication at a local clinic around the FDA Community in Paynesville for about three days before going to MEDICOVER Clinic.
But the Minister of Health, Dr. Jallah informed the media that the Liberian government is holding discussion with other nations aimed at ordering the Ebola preventive vaccine to protect the country from any eventuality.
The Western African Ebola virus epidemic (2013–2016) was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in history, causing major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The first cases were recorded in Guinea in December 2013; later, the disease spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone with minor outbreaks occurring elsewhere.
It caused significant mortality, with the case fatality rate reported which was initially considerable, while the rate among hospitalized patients was 57–59%, the final numbers 28,616 people, including 11,310 deaths, for a case-fatality rate of 40%. Small outbreaks occurred in Nigeria and Mali, and secondary infections of medical workers occurred in the United States and Spain.
In addition, isolated cases were recorded in Senegal, the United Kingdom and Italy. The number of cases peaked in October 2014 and then began to decline gradually, following the commitment of substantial international resources. As of 8 May 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) and respective governments reported a total of 28,646 suspected cases and 11,323 deaths (39.5%), though the WHO believes that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak.
On 8 August 2014, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern was declared and on 29 March 2016, the WHO terminated the Public Health Emergency of International Concern status of the outbreak. Subsequent flare-ups occurred; the epidemic was finally declared over on 9 June 2016, 42 days after the last case tested negative on 28 April 2016 in Monrovia.
The outbreak left about 17,000 survivors of the disease, many of whom report post-recovery symptoms termed post-Ebola syndrome, often severe enough to require medical care for months or even years. An additional cause for concern is the apparent ability of the virus to “hide” in a recovered survivor’s body for an extended period of time and then become active months or years later, either in the same individual or in a sexual partner. In December 2016, the WHO announced that a two-year trial of the appeared to offer protection from the variant of EBOV responsible for the Western Africa outbreak. The vaccine is considered to be effective and is the only prophylactic which offers protection; hence, 300,000 doses have been stockpiled. Source: Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia
