“EBOLA KILLS – What is the Minister of Health Doing to Protect Us?” asks Team UNITY
Unity Press Release
Basseterre, St.Kitts (TUCOM):- CNN, FOX, BBC and other international and regional news media have been agog with the epidemic of Ebola and the deadly impact it is having with over 4000 persons dead. There is heightened awareness that Ebola is no laughing matter and serious action must be taken to protect our people from Ebola. Writing in the Grenada Informer on Friday October 10 2014, Dr. Terrance Marryshaw advises that “once established in the human body, this virus moves very quickly to attack the organs resulting in organ failure and eventually death if the patient’s immune system is not able to resist the effects of the virus or if the patient is unable to get one of the experimental drugs that have saved two (2) United States workers who were infected with the disease.”
Given the incompetent leadership provided by Marcella Liburd as Minister of Health and her bungling over the health and human rights challenges at Basseterre High School, we are skeptical that the Minister has caused the necessary actions to take place to keep us safe and we are not assured that St. Kitts is ready to face Ebola. Therefore in the interest of the public, we posed a number of questions to the Minister of Health, in the hope that these will spur Marcella Liburd at long last to action.
Minister of Health:
1. Is there a strategic action health plan for Ebola?
2. What steps has the Ministry taken to prevent the virus from entering the country?
3. Has the Ministry of Health identified isolation or quarantine areas at our ports of entry, our hospitals? Where are they? What condition are they in? Are our public areas of the hospital regularly outfitted with disinfectant? Does the Minister of Health follow the old maxim, “prevention is better than cure” In this regard what necessary precautionary measures have or are being taken to eliminate possible threats from the dreaded Ebola disease?
4. Has the Ministry of Health ordered or have in stock all that is required in order for our citizens and residents to have a sense of comfort?
5. Does the Ministry have available adequate inventory to enable our health care providers to respond adequately without endangering themselves?
6. Does the Ministry have adequate quantities of body suits, level four suits, aprons, boots, masks, disinfectants?
7. What are the protocols for students who come from Western Africa – Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberiaand Guinea?
8. Has the Ministry considered and determined the need for scanning persons at our Ports of entry to determine elevated body temperature as this is one of the first visible signs of Ebola?
9. When will the Minister of Health advise the Public regarding the strategy for Ebola?