MONROVIA Septem
ber 30 (LINA) - Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services, Tolbert Nyenswah, says government is placing emphasis on safe burial practices to prevent further spread of the Ebola disease.
He also said health authorities should do more to prevent health workers from getting infected with the Ebola virus as well as formulate measures to transport infected or suspected Ebola patients.
Nyenswah made the statement Monday at the Ministry of Information daily Ebola update held in the conference hall of the Ministry when he outlined four stringent measures necessary to break the chain of transmission and contain the Ebola virus.
He said burying people suspected to have died of the virus is the responsibility of burial teams and not relatives or community dwellers, emphasizing that people should not venture into taking the risk, especially when they are not trained to do so.
The assistant health minister then urged Liberians to temporarily suspend traditional burial rites that are causing more people to get infected with the virus.
“To support government’s efforts relative to safe burial, we have increased the burial teams to 10, while we have also added four new ambulances to the eight we initially operated with, thereby bringing to 12 the number of ambulances. This will help us to speedily pick up the sick as well as move the dead on time,” Nyenswah said.
Explaining further, Nyenswah disclosed that health workers should be fully protected to combat the disease as it will provide them the confidence to further perform their duties.
He disclosed that records from the Ministry of Health have shown that most of the health care workers who contracted the virus did so while performing extra services out of treatment units.
Meanwhile, the assistant minister has called on community dwellers to continue to spread preventive messages in every home so that people will not continue to get infected with the virus.
He said if people are well informed and taught preventive measures on a daily basis the country will soon experience a drop in the number of cases being reported.
LINA WSG/GDJ/TSS