By Adama Conteh
232News
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The Executive Director, National Public Health Agency Pro. Foday Sahr revealed to the press that polio case type 3 variant was found in the stool of a one year old child in Kambia and another case of polio variants type 2 in Mabala, Western Area, noting that they have activated immediate response to level 2 which prepares the agency to respond adequately to the outbreak.
He made this statement during the government weekly press conference last Tuesday March 2024 which was organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tower Hill.
Prof. Sahr stated that the agency was launched by President Maada Bio on 14th December 2023, and the purpose of launching it is to give the public an early respond and quick treatment of any public health emergency in the country, noting that the Ministry of health will operate even when there is no outbreak.
He furthered stated that they will use the structures that are in the Ministry of Health workers that are in the least PHU to work with them so that they will get information and continued to do surveillance and also for sampling file from the least PHU to the Headquarters in Freetown or the public health in British.
He stated the responsibilities include early detection and responds to outbreak, highlighting that the pillars that are responsible for the outbreak which include Surveillance which is very active, Laboratory which is responsible for testing any kind of samples that is taken from the field, Case Management which is responsible for people that are affected, Risk Communication which is responsible to informed the media concerning what is happening in the country, Infection and Prevention Control (IPC) as well as Psychosocial.
“We have achieved a lot for the past three Months, and our operation does not only limited to Human Health but also Animal health and the environment stating the disease that are affecting humans usually comes from animals”, he stated.
He disclosed to the press that they are currently working with the Ministry of health and sanitation and all other agency so that they will implement a comprehensive responds plan which is ongoing to end the outbreak at Kambia and Marbella Western Area and they will continued to collect samples and the community engagement will respond to these concerned issues. He continued that they will have to involved Vaccinations which means children which are not vaccinated are born to be infected by polio. He revealed that polio has been declared as polio free in Sierra Leone therefore there should not be any case of polio.
He noted that Sierra Leone has invested a lot of resources to strengthen the infrastructure effectively to public health emergency. He announced that they have developed clear protocol to guide the coordinated response with the define goals and responsibilities for all stakeholders. He further explained that they have also engaged in education and outreach programs collaborated with community leaders and organizations so that they will allow the participants of the community members to participate on any outbreak. He added that they also trained health workers to respond to the outbreak.
