Cholera - a recurring global issue
Posted: 17 June 2010
Following last year’s cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe and St John’s valiant response, yet another outbreak occupies St John volunteers in Papua New Guinea and St John Zambia gets involved in cholera prevention.
The first cholera case in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea (PNG), was on the 30th April 2010 with one patient displaying the symptoms - this had increased to 10 people by the following day.
The outbreak was traced to a common event – all those affected had attended a funeral. In PNG it is common place to have a deceased family member "lie in state" for a few days and all the family touch and kiss the deceased person. This coupled with relatively poor hygiene standards and limited education about how to prevent diseases has led to the spread of the bacteria which causes cholera.
As of the 10th June, 225 patients have presented to the St John Hospital at Gerehu and been admitted to the Cholera Treatment Centre, a quarantined area. A total of 5 people have died, but only one at St John’s centre. St John has worked very closely with the World Health Organisation and Doctors Without Boarders to establish education of patients and staff, public awareness programmes and oral re-hydration stations.
The Chief Officer for Operations for St John PNG, Tim Wieland speaks very highly of St John members, saying “I have been delighted with the dedication and commitment demonstrated by our St John Staff. They have approached this epidemic with true professionalism and have been tremendously hard working in trying to combat this outbreak. Particular mention must go to the volunteers for their tireless efforts and continued enthusiasm.”
St John used around 6 - 8 volunteers per shift to assist and support the hospital staff with cleaning, infection control, preparing meals, feeding patients and doing laundry which enables the medical and nursing staff free to focus on patient care.
To add to this, on the 7th June St John had to send 3 ambulances and 10 staff to Kupiano, a town about 4 hours out of Port Moresby. Another outbreak of cholera has been raging for 7 days and already 8 have died. St John has set up a decontamination area and are dealing with patients.
On the other side of the world in Lusaka, Zambia health workers had been battling the worst cholera outbreak in years. By early 2010 130 had been killed and close to 5,000 being affected by the disease which was thought to have started due to flooding in the city.
St John Zambia, funded by the St John International office, has launched a large public awareness campaign in the capital. They have distributed domestic chlorine to over 3000 households and are educating people on home chlorination, proper hand washing and hygiene practices. They have also been spraying public toilets and promoting refuse collection.
Posted by: Admin
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