MoH wants protection for health workers
The head of the case management system and all Ebola Treatment Units or ETUs at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Moses Massaquoi, has stressed the need to protect health workers across Liberia to strengthen their abilities in treating patients suspected of having the Ebola virus. Dr. Massaquoi said the objective of the case management system is to provide active care for those working in various ETUs in the country.
Speaking on Monday, December 8, 2014 at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism’s daily press briefing on Capitol Hill, Dr. Massaquoi noted that the Health Ministry along with the World Health Organization have trained 1,149 health workers to work in various treatment units around the country. He said the exercise is intended to educate medical practitioners, who want to become nurses, doctors, hygienist and those who don’t have any medical knowledge.
Meanwhile, a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control or CDC, Dr. Neil Gupta, has urged Liberians to be on the alert for other diseases and not Ebola along because Ebola hides among other diseases. He said the Ebola virus is a disease that rapidly destroys the human system, principally living in animals.
He noted that there is no way Ebola can be different from other sicknesses like malaria, fever and diarrhea except a test is run through a Laboratory, and stressed the need to have laboratory in all Ebola Treatment Units to identify and treat other diseases. Dr. Gupta said the Ebola virus is very lazy, noting that even sunshine kills the virus. “Liberians should be clever than the stupid Ebola virus”, he added.
The CDC medical expert called on Liberians to keep reporting suspected cases in helping to fight the virus. He also said that Liberia is experiencing a serious drop in new cases, and noted that in September, 30 persons per day died of Ebola, but the death rate has seriously fallen.
