By: Precious Miracle Kargbo
According to the program manager in the expanded program on immunization at the Ministry of Health and Sanitization, Dr Desmond Maada Kambai has informed on Thursday 23rd November 2023 that according to data from 2018-2022 shows that over 10 districts have a very high figure of confirmed typhoid cases across the country.
To start, Dr Desmond asserts that the typhoid disease is usually contacted through unhygienic food, water or close contact which results into high fever, headache, stomachache, diarrhea etc. He furthers that Typhoid is now becoming rampant in the country and that is the main reason why they are conducting this program known as the Extended Program on Immunization (EPI) and the reason why they have conducted the workshop stakeholder’s validation on typhoid burden so that different bodies will come together to proffer solutions on combating the typhoid virus and give out vaccines to children.
On that note, Senior Medical Officer attached from Pad Seattle in the United states of America, Aziza Will Songo sheds light on the importance of the vaccines to children that it will serve as a very determining tool that will keep children safe and prevent them from catching the Typhoid virus anytime in the future because it will serve as very strong wall that will resist any virus in the system of children, she maintains that this vaccine will be distributed to the Ministry of Health in due time and will be ready for use to children and the entire populace in Sierra Leone.
Delivering the keynote statement, Dr Kambai highlighted that according to data which they have collected from ten districts can vividly show that there is a massive increase of the Typhoid virus in these districts. He said “the cumulative data shows that there is an increase of 50,000 and above in most of these districts and some of the districts with less than 14,000 and some of the districts with less than are Falaba and Karene[U1] districts which are new and have not posed any threat, but for western area urban with the highest and have reported over 100,71000 cases which automatically claims the district with the highest cases of the Typhoid virus.
Furthermore, during the engagement, the Secretary General for the council of Paramount Chiefs. Paramount Chief Fayia Souvolla 4 said that it is evident in Sierra Leone poor environmental conditions is the prevalent factor of the widespread Typhoid virus because starting from the communities where there are inadequate toilet and sanitary conditions, he explained that people use the toilets and litter streets with all sort of rubbish and by the end of the day when these flies get in contact with food that might have been prepared for our consumption then it transmits the virus and we end contacting it through the food we eat.
Meanwhile, Dr Mustapha Kabba the Deputy Chief Medical officer, clinical service from the Ministry of Heath explains that there have been numerous measures which have been put in place to combat the Typhoid Virus which includes proper research, validation and indication which will help us to stage a winning battle against the virus and from the vaccines that will be coming in will create a drive to quell this situation under control once and for all. He went further that people should stop the habit of randomly going to hospitals for drugs and antibiotics when they don’t really know the issue affecting them.
He concluded, that they are staging a war against Typhoid and it is a battle that they are not going to lose because this is what they are trained to do and there is evidence of how they have conquered the Typhoid parasite, not on one occasion, so this will not be an exception.