Festivities blamed for spread of disease

 By ALISON ANIS

THERE has been an increase in the number of patients to the cholera centre at the Port Moresby General Hospital last month and this month and there is fear the number of patients may have doubled over the Christmas period due to movement of people in and out of city.

According to statistics released by the National Health Department command centre last Thursday, there were an average of eight to nine patients per day since November but the highest was for Dec 17, 18 and 19. “There were more than 20 admissions on each of these days,” reports from the command centre said.

The laboratory results also confirmed that NCD was still dealing with active cases and that most of these were from settlements and villages in NCD and Central.

Hot spots were Koki, Vadavada, 8-Mile, 9-Mile, Morata and Hanuabada in NCD and Boera from Central.

Reports from the PMGH confirmed that there were 23 patients admitted at the cholera unit.

The surveillance team from the Health Department continued to monitor the cholera situation throughout the country.

Technically, the report predicted that during the festive period and continuous rainfall in Port Moresby, as well as other parts of the country, we would see an influx in the number of patients.