Mother, child treated for suspected cholera

A MOTHER and her child were treated for suspected cholera in Goroka last week after they developed symptoms of the disease.
They were reported to have travelled in from the disease-stricken Menyamya district in Morobe province for a church gathering.
While attending a gathering at the University of Goroka campus, they developed severe diarrhoea and were rushed to the Goroka Base Hospital where their stool samples were taken for laboratory tests.
According to hospital physician and director of medical services, Dr Kapiro Kendaura, the mother and her child were given drugs and sent home.
Their condition is being monitored while awaiting the results of tests on their stool samples.
He also said another person from Kama village outside Goroka town was treated at the hospital for dysentery and three others brought to the hospital were suspected of having malaria.
Dr Kendaura said they were all sent home after being treated at the hospital.
The hospital is on full alert for cholera and dysentery after receiving an influx of patients with severe diarrhoea complaints.
The Eastern Highlands provincial emergency cholera response task force has set up a makeshift hospital behind the Goroka Base Hospital morgue to separately quarantine and treat cholera patients.
Deputy director of the provincial health division, Ken Wai, said that a medical team from the province would be sent to Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae to study the cholera treatment centre before they could establish a similar centre in Goroka.
Mr Wai said training was conducted for staff of the provincial health division and Goroka Base Hospital on how to handle cholera, dysentery and influenza patients.
Authorities in the Eastern Highlands province reacted to the cholera threat by imposing a ban on the sale of cooked food at public places and markets in Goroka and Kainantu.