EBOLA: Govt sets up screening centre

21 Sep, 2014 - 06:09 0 Views
EBOLA: Govt sets up screening centre

The Sunday Mail

Government has set up a health reception centre at Tongogara Refugee Camp to ensure proper screening of Ebola is done on all new arrivals.

Zimbabwe records around 160 refugee and asylum-seeking arrivals every month, with the majority coming from the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region. The country has gained repute worldwide as a peaceful destination where refugees and asylum seekers can easily assimilate.

Mr Ngoni Masoka, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, said they had taken heed of the SADC Communiqué on Ebola preparedness and positively responded to ensure that a new strain of the virus recently detected in the DRC is not brought into Zimbabwe by refugees and asylum seekers.

“At Tongogara Refugee Camp, the reception centre for asylum seekers, has been separated from the main refugee camp to ensure proper health assessment and care to all new arrivals before they are integrated into the main refugee camp,” he said. “This has been very helpful to identify and manage communicable diseases among new arrivals before they join the main refugee camp.”

The camp has a clinic which normally attends to the health of refugees and with the Ebola threat, Government has set up isolation rooms and a quarantine section to help manage the situation.

Mr Masoka indicated they had not registered any cases of Ebola-like symptoms.

The use of exit screening processes and quarantine measures at entry points and other parts of the country have been helpful in assessing all persons coming into the country to ensure proper assessment, identification and diagnosis of Ebola symptoms.

As of July this year, a total of 5 018 refugees and 3 263 asylum seekers had sought refuge in the country. Of this figure, 72 percent were Congolese, 13 percent Rwandese, 11 percent Burundians and 4 percent constituted Malians, Syrians, Egyptians, Ivoirians, Ethiopians and Somalis.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds