THE Ministry of Health on the Copperbelt has set Masala Clinic in Ndola as the quarantine centre for Ebola in an event that a case of the disease was recorded in the province.
Copperbelt medical officer Consity Mwale said yesterday in response to a Press Query that the province’s medical office has set up a number of preparatory measures including setting up Masala Clinic as the quarantine centre in an event that Ebola was recorded in the province.
Dr Mwale said the Copperbelt has two borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and one international airport which were the three possibilities through which a person infected with Ebola could use to enter the country.
These are Kasumbalesa border post in Chililabombwe, Mokambo border in Mufulira and Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola.
“All these facilities offer port health services and have trained staff stationed at their health facilities. The health workers screen people coming into the country from all over the world for any contagious diseases like Ebola through active surveillance,” Dr Mwale said.
He said two environmental health officers and one clinician have been are assigned to screen passengers arriving at the airport from abroad using approved screening forms and have personal protective equipment.
In Mufulira at Mokambo border, two environmental health officers and one clinician have been assigned to screen people going through the border and also at Kasumbalesa border post.
Dr Mwale said the level of preparedness was adequate in an event of an Ebola epidemic in the province saying that personal protective equipment has been procured and information, education and communication strategies on health promotion and prevention was ongoing for the public and health workers.
“Clinical lessons on Ebola have already started and will be given to all health care workers. There is need to refurbish the quarantine facility already identified and this calls for a multisectoral approach,” he said.
Whose stupid idea was it to establish an Ebola isolation centre in one of the densely populated areas of the city?. This centre is within the township and surrounded by residential dwellings making it very dangerous as far cross infection is concerned. It is not called isolation for nothing you dim wits! The drainages from this centre go directly in the community drainage and rubbish exposed to children. If you ask me, establishing this centre in the midst of a highly populated Masala with already poor sanitation. The market in Masala attracts people from all over the country and if you ask me, it is where you introduce the virus if you want to spread it to other parts of the country. Is this the idea of a public health professional or a politically appointed pain pusher?
Iwe its not just about isolation if they put it in a vilage do you think there will be any doctors, nurses, cleaners, and other specialists to man it. And what about equipment that needs to be readly available to prevent its spread where are you going to get it from in a vilage. Obviously someone has already thought of isolating the any excrement etc…
“Pain Pusher!” Eehh – Zambian education!! I doubt if that was a slip of the computer keys, substituting 2 letters for one – Won’t be surprised if one utters, it isn’t their mother tongue – THEN why bother using it??
Did you, by any chance, mean a PCA( Patient Controlled Analgesia???)
@ Maikalange, I meant Personal Allowance Initiative Now (PAIN), a terminology coined by staff during the cholera centre days to enable health workers and their bosses to start claiming allowances for something that was neither here nor their.
hahahahaha jokers, mwanya mwalapwa
Bad and deadly idea. Too close to people. Find another place in. Hopefully, the people of Ndola will reject this.
IS ZEMA agreable to all the designated sites for Quarantine Centers for Ebola such as Masala in Ndola? My concern is the disposal of the effluent which may arise from these centers? Will it not end up contaminating our streams and rivers which are our main source of water. Do we have the capabilities to destroy the virus assuming that it is water borne?I’m just thinking aloud.
Wht can of ministers of health do we hav in zambia?or ar thy ministers of death?plz masala is a populated area from the next door of the clinic is residential,to the left next school,hind churches!!!its not thinkable for masala to be of tht purpose.the affected pipo must be issolated.
Shame!!!!!!!
That is unthinkable!!!!is it becaz u don’t stay in Masala?
We ndola residents say no, to this occurin. We say no to using masala clinc. We dont you go places like kafulafuta or sakania. If you use Masala clinc it will the opposite of containing the virus.
Kwena Ebola…..
whilst i welcome the idea of being prepared in as far as EBOLA is concerned, i personally feel we are not being fair to ourselves. Masala already has a recipe for spreading any deadly disease i do not need to go in depth.
if we want to use Ndola as a centre, we can safely look at the forest between Ndola and Kitwe and set up a quarantine place using one of the prefab clinics which are being dotted around the country. Lets follow isolation as isolation.