Cholera outbreak ‘controlled’

THE situation in Morobe province for the dysentery flu and cholera out break is “controlled but not contained”.
Reports coming in from the affected outer districts and the cholera treatment centre in Angau indicate that there are still cases being reported.
According to the deputy provincial health adviser, Micah Yawing, “this indicates that the situation is controlled, but not enough to say that it is contained”.
The exact number of reported cases to date could not be attained but should be presented after next week’s task force briefing.
The briefings will be scaled down to one meeting, instead of two, a week.
Mr Yawing said the task force was adopting a new approach to address the situation for cholera in Lae.
He said when a case was reported to the cholera treatment centre, residential information for the patient would be released to awareness officers, who will go out to the location and conduct awareness and education.
Mr Yawing said focus is now directed toward Madang and it is important to keep up with awareness and education because there were no restrictions to people travelling in and out of Madang and this could provoke another outbreak in Lae.
The K8 million from the Government to address the prevention phase had not yet been received, he said.
He said he was not in a position to state the reason over the delay of the funding.