Hospital keeps close watch on outbreak

National

The Vanimo General Hospital in West Sepik is working closely with the Health Department and World Health Organisation (WHO) to manage the measles outbreak in the province, according to the hospital’s chief executive officer.
Yalim Alphonse said they have given the situation report to the department and the hospital was looking into managing the outbreak.
Health Secretary Pascoe Kase confirmed last week that there has been an outbreak of measles in Vanimo district and the provincial team was visiting schools and villages to vaccinate children.
“The province has 18,000 doses of measles vaccine available, the national medical supply store has sufficient stock to dispatch more vaccines when required,” Kase said.
“Measles is a very contagious disease and it’s too early to determine the magnitude of the outbreak and whether it has already spread to other parts of the province or country.”
The department and World Health Organisation are providing technical support to assess the situation on the ground.
WHO country representative Dr Luo Dapeng, when contacted by The National, said both teams from WHO and the Health Department were still working to measure the scale of the outbreak.