By Taban Henry
Authorities in Central Equatoria State said they are planning to arrest cases of measles in the state especially the parts of Northern Bari Payam that has registered some cases of Measles outbreak.
This came during the council of ministers meeting after the Central Equatoria State minister of health presented the state plan to arrest and halt the outbreak of measles in the state.
Addressing the media after the Council of Ministers meeting, the state Minister of Information Adruga Mabe Severio said the state has planned to arrest or halt the outbreak of measles in Central Equatoria particularly in Northern Bari Payam of Juba county where the cases of measles is in prevalence.
“The council of ministers listened to the report and the plan presented by the state minister of health and upon deliberation of all the events and with technical consultation the council passed the plan and directs the minister of health to implement the letter,” he said.
Mabe also stated that the state cabinet further directed the minister of finance planning and investment to avail the necessary funds to meet the cost of implementation of this emergency plan as stated by the ministry of health.
He said the cabinet was pleased by the immediate response taken by the state ministry of health to response to such intervention.
Meanwhile the state Minister of Health Nejwa Juba Mursaldisclosed that her ministry is dealing with different epidemiological diseases in the nature of pandemic and epidemic of which currently the outbreak of measles that was reported in July they declared it as an outbreak of measles in Juba County.
She noted that this prompted the state ministry of health to conduct the vaccination for five Payam’s that includes Juba City Council.
“We found that in Northern Bari the vaccination team where we found a huge number appear especially in Kworijik Luri saying this because most of the children in the area were not vaccinated during their childhood development, some of them up to seven years as a result of instability some few years before the cattle crisis that made people to move from place to place,” she said.
Nejwa stated that there were some cases reported to this week that there are some cattle camps where the outbreak is high.
She noted that they are planning for the state rapid response team to reach those areas which includes Amadi.
She added that they have finished vaccination in the northern bank of the Nile starting from Lokiliri, Mangala up to Jemeza and the macro plan for Terekeka is on gear.
“With the help of our partners and the government of Central Equatoria State, we are going to take the vaccines to all the counties including Morobo, Rokon and the other areas, the other issue is COVID-19 where its huge number is in Central Equatoria but the fertility rate of Covid-19 is 0.75%, it is a little bit not like measles which fertility rate is 10%,” she added.
The health minister is urging people in the state not to panic because of Ebola outbreak saying it is under control by the national government.