By: Emmanuel Tophic Degleh
Kakat, Margibi County – Health Team has declared as emergency the current measles outbreak in the county while disclosing that it will exert serious effort to tackle the epidemic.
Making the disclosure over the weekend, Dr. Adolphus Yeah – Margibi County Health Officer – said the measles outbreak has spread to all parts of the county with Mamba- Kaba district in Lower Margibi reporting the highest number of cases, representing about 63 % of the total cases reported so far.
According to the head of the County Dr. Yeah there are currently a total of 33 suspected cases with one confirmed death and 26 confirmed cases since the outbreak nearly three weeks ago.
According to LocalVoicesLIberia reporter in the county, what appears to be a major challenge in combating the outbreak is the inaccessibility of some of the affected towns most especially in Gibi district where health workers reportedly walk for hours due to the lack good roads.
For the past three weeks, the current measles outbreak in Margibi County has left one person dead, 26 confirmed cases and 33 suspected cases.
The County Health Officer says Health Minister, Dr. Bernice Dahn has restored the county’s Incident Management System (IMS). Dr. Yeah noted that the restoration of the IMS means it will treat the measles like any other contagious disease as in the case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
He added that all health facilities in the county are in full readiness to combat the outbreak of the measles disease.
The outbreak of the contagious measles disease is becoming common as it can be recalled in April 2015 that a total of 77 cases were recorded with six deaths in the county.