Cholera cases below fatality rate: Doctor

THE hard work and effort by the St John Hospital’s cholera treatment centre staff in Gerehu has helped patients to recover quickly.
National Capital District (NCD) cholera task force medical response coordinator Dr Niko Wuatai said the case fatality rate (CTR) for the centre was 0.6%, well below the normal CTR of 20% to 50%.
“Only one death was recorded in the centre and patients are responding well to treatment,” Wuatai said.
He said the NCD health services staff had teamed up with the St John staff and had been working together since the centre opened.
“Our target is to maintain our CTR at 0.6% or even below that. We had some very sick patients but we were able to help them recover,” he said.
Wuatai said people were coming with typical cholera like symptoms in very de-hydrated conditions, referring to the people from Central’s Lealea village.
He presented a pie chart showing 70% of the patients admitted were male.
“We also noticed that many patients from Lealea were brought to the centre at night and early in the morning,” he said.
The same issue was raised by Central Governor Alphonse Moroi at the declaration of the public health emergency in the province last month that stigmatisation was rife in the Lealea and Papa villages.
“That’s why people are reporting very late to the clinic, either late at night or early in the morning,” Moroi said.