By Ragan M Conteh

Kambia district and Freetown have has once again succumbed to polio disease in the country.

This was disclosed by the  Executive Director of the National Public Health Agency (NPA), Professor Foday Sahr, who informed members of the media that there are currently two  confirmed cases of polio in Sierra Leone.

He said one case is reported from Kambia district and the other case is reported from Magbala community in the Western urban area in Freetown.

Mr. Sahr made this statement during a usual government press briefing held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Corperation Conference room organized by at the Ministry of Information and Civil Education (MoICE).

The professor disclosed that they got the first report from Kambia district from one-year-old-child and later on they also received another report from Magbala commnity in Western urban area, adding that one of the cases is a polio virant type 2.

He said when they received the reports from Environmental Regular testing team, they responded swiftly to it.

Years back , professor Sahr, had supported an announcemment by WHO to have declared Sierra Leone of polio free.

He added that Public Health Agency was an initiative established by President Bio for early detection and for a quick response to calls by the Public Health Emergency Response Team in the country.

He said the operation of the agency is unique as compared to the other agencies in the globe and that it overrides the Primarily Health Architecture in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS).

While emphasising  the uniqueness of the agency, he said, even when there is no outbreak in Sierra Leone, they will continue to work.

Prof. Sahr assured that they are working with MoHS through community healthcare workers to wrestle the disease.

And by so doing, he said, they would be getting information from them and would continue with their active surveillance from the PHU districts to the headquarters in Freetown.

He highlighted the agency’s responsibilities including early detection and quick response to outbreak among others.

He said the agency is operating on five pillars namely Surveillance, Labotory, Case Management, Risk Communication pillars emphasising among them all Risk Communication is the key pillars among others.

He said the Risk Communication pillar is a situation wherein they engaged the media and other relevant stakeholders in the various communities.

He affirmed that three months down the line , they have achived a lot, asserting that their activities are not only based on human health, but also animal health.

He added that survivalence teams are in these two communities as they continue to do health samples through community engagement.

The health response team, he said, the work would be done in multifaceted approach.

He disclosed that children who have not yet vaccinated are going to be vaccinated.