WE hail the Government’s efforts to spend K200,000 for Ebola surveillance on the Copperbelt.
Since alerts of the killer disease, the Ministry of Health has stepped up measures to prevent any possible outbreak of Ebola in Zambia.
Considering the measures that the Government has implemented in preventing the disease, we are calling on Zambians to heed the calls made by the Minister of Health Joseph Kasonde for citizens to be on high alert to help prevent an Ebola outbreak.
Dr Kasonde was quoted in the media as saying the World Health Organisation(WHO) had declared Ebola as an international disaster and allocated US$11 million to help the affected countries while all countries have been urged to take up precautionary measures.
He clarified that the ministry had issued a travel advisory and not a ban as earlier reported, warning all Zambians from travelling to affected countries while all delegates from countries affected are restricted from entering Zambia until further notice.
This statement was issued at the peak of the Ebola scare which has now waned but not disappeared.
Dr Kasonde signed the Statutory Instrument (SI) on Tuesday, August 27 last year, directing all health workers to notify the Government of any suspected Ebola cases.
Zambia received Ebola preparedness supplies from the World Health Organisation (WHO) worth US$50,000 in Lusaka and signed the SI under the country’s Health Public Act as part of measures embarked on by the Government against any possible Ebola outbreaks.
Zambia took all these measures after reports that Ebola cases in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had continued increasing, hence the need for improved surveillance measures in Zambia.
We are glad to note that Zambia has continued strengthening surveillance systems at the DRC border to prevent any possible outbreak of the deadly disease.
So far the Zambian Government has continued alerting the citizenry that Ebola has become Africa’s huge health threat with calls to contain it at a preventive stage.
The Government has ensured that authorities in border towns like Chililabombwe on the Copperbelt have stepped up screening measures at Kasumbalesa, the country’s busiest border entry point with the DRC, with people crossing into Zambia being screened while those heading into the DRC were being sensitised on Ebola.
In view of the threat the disease poses, organisations like the Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) has urged Government to come up with sensitisation programmes for prisons officers on symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus.
PRISCCA executive director Geoffrey Malembeka said in view of the fact that some illegal immigrants from different countries are detained in various prisons, it was important for sensitisation on the disease.
Olusegun Babaniyi, the WHO representative in Zambia, was quoted as saying it was important for Zambia to be prepared for any possible Ebola outbreak.
Fortunately Zambia has heeded Babaniyi’s call by keeping up its guard against the killer disease which spread out in West Africa last year and has so far affected more than 2,600 people and killed about 1,427, according to WHO figures.
Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease, is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus strains (Zaire, Sudan, Bundibugyo, or Tai Forest virus).
Ebola viruses are found in several African countries and were discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the DRC.
Since then, outbreaks have appeared sporadically in several African countries.
Fortunately because of stringent measures that Zambia has put up, the disease has so far been kept at bay.