Liberia on Monday said five new Ebola cases have been recorded on the outskirts of Monrovia in a week, but announced that the outbreak was now limited to Montserrado, the county that hosts the capital, Monrovia.
Addressing a news conference, Assistant Minister of Health for Preventive Services, Tolbert Nyenswah said it was had to announce a setback as the country targets ending the outbreak before March.
“I am speaking this morning with a very heavy heart, to see a new outbreak in Montserrado, a very high and new outbreak that we now describe as the ‘St. Paul Bridge Cluster Infection Chain,’” Nyenswah said.
“Five new cases have been reported in seven days in that community. From January 12 to February 1, 2015—the past 21 days—15 confirmed cases have been reported. All of these cases are from Montserrado and seven now in the ETUs.”
He said authorities were now challenged by finding contacts of the cases and having them returned to Monrovia.
“What is more troubling that is raising this public health concern and prompting this alert, is the fact that the contacts are escaping, denying and leaving Montserrado to areas like Lofa, Margibi and Bomi—areas that have been free of Ebola for a very long time. But we brought them back so that they don’t infect those counties.
“This is troubling. We have to stop in Montserrado County. When you are told that you are a contact, remain in your home for 21 days. We are not crazy people to say that you are a contact. We prove epidemiologically that you are a contact, that you had primary or secondary contact with a confirmed case. That is why we are following you up”.
Nyenswah said the Ministry of Health had instructed all county health teams to arrest fleeing contacts and bring them back to Monrovia, where they could be subsequently jailed.
“We have a law. The public health law protects against Ebola. We should do everything possible to stop the spread of the disease. The anti-Ebola regulation, signed by the President…, prohibits people leaving from one community to another community when you are a contact. We will evoke that law to the letter and start fining people and, if possible, we will imprison them.”
However, Nyenswah announced that Grand Cape Mount County, the border county that recorded new cases as early as December, had not reported any case in nearly three weeks.
“On a positive note, Grand Cape Mount continues to do a great job. Grand Cape Mount has gone 18 days without a single case of Ebola, three more days are left for them to complete their 21 days. We hope that they can continue in the next three days for Grand Cape Mount to hit 21 then 14 counties will be free of EVD (Ebola virus disease) in the last 30 days, Ninety-two percent reduction and decline from 12 cases in November to 0.9 cases in January, that is a huge decline in our Ebola fight and the number of cases.
He warned against complacency and public misconception that the trial of Ebola vaccines, which began Monday at the Redemption Hospital, meant end to the disease.
“I want to inform you that the current trial that is ongoing right now is not what will end the Ebola crisis that is going on in our country. [The current trial] is to help us for future outbreak. We know the history of the disease, we know the literature, and we know when it took place. We also know that the one that occurred in Liberia and the region is the most difficult and unprecedented outbreak and this is why we’re finding a lasting solution.
“What will end this outbreak are the measures that we are taking now—the Ebola treatment units, the contact tracing, the engagement in the community and the social mobilization. That is what is getting us to zero in the current outbreak. “