Monrovia, Jan. 20 (LINA) – The Grand Kru County Health Team has confirmed one case of the Meningitis disease and a suspect case at The Rally Time Hospital in Electoral District #1.
According to the County Health Officer, Madam Siana Jackson Mentoe, the confirmed case involves a 12 year-old female child, while the suspected case is linked to a 10 year-old child in Barclayville District.
The 12 year-old child, whose name is being withheld, showed signs of Meningitis, and tested positive when her specimen was sent to the National Reference Laboratory in Kakata, Margibi County.
The child was admitted and treated at the Rally Time Hospital and has been discharged, Dr Mentoe disclosed.
The County Health Officer also disclosed that a second suspected case involving a female patient, 10, is yet to be confirmed by health authorities.
Madam Mentoe said the suspected patient is a resident of Wapleken Community in Barclayville City.
Speaking during a health meeting held in the conference room of the County Health Team in Barclayville City over the weekend, Mentoe indicated that the suspected patient has been isolated and is undergoing treatment at the Rally Time Hospital in Grandcess.
Meningitis is an inflammation (swelling) of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. A bacterial or viral infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord usually causes the swelling.
Meanwhile, Madam Mentoe is calling on locals not to panic as the situation has been put under control by health authorities in the county.
“Let me warn drugstores owners who are in the constant habit of treating patients at their facilities in Grand Kru, that it is a serious violation of the health laws, and violators will not go scot-free,” Dr Mentoe pointed out.
On his part, a representative of the County Superintendent’s Office, Roosevelt Doe, appreciated the local Ministry of Health staff for the emergency meeting, and stressed the need for robust media engagement to create the necessary awareness aimed at providing health education to people and how they too can buttress the Ministry’s efforts to prevent a spread of the disease in their respective areas.
He committed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to working along with the MoH to ensure the total involvement of chiefs and citizens in the awareness campaign in the county, saying that “health is everybody’s business.”
LINA JMS/TSS/PTK
