‘Stop Infecting Others’: Ebola Incident Manager Warns Survivors

Dr. Francis Katek/Chief Medical officer Jackson F. Doe Referral Hospital Nimba County/Republic of Liberia

Monrovia - The Chief Medical Officer of Jackson F. Doe Memorial Hospital and Deputy Incident Manager for medical services at the Ebola Incident Management System has warned survivors of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease to refrain from infecting others through sexual intercourse.

Dr. Francis Kateh Wednesday told a Ministry of Information regular Ebola update news conference that they have received cases in which survivors of the Ebola diseased transmit the virus to their partners through sexual intercourse and that the behavior is leading to the further spread of the virus.

Said Dr. Kateh: “With in semen you get (Ebola) up to ninety days even after you recover. We are getting cases now where people are not taking these necessary precautions. They leave from the treatment center as survivors and they go back and infect their partners. We are begging you all to please stop. It is not good for the men and for the women.”

According to Dr. Kateh, the Virus stays in a female sexual organ between 43-44 days while it lasts in male semen for about ninety days even after they survivor from the virus. He advised survivors to carry out protected sex measures by persistently using condoms during sexual intercourse with their partners or abstain from sex until the stipulated times elapse.

“Please, please, it is not going to go away. You cannot serve as a conduit to infect your partner, someone that you love, someone that you care about and so forth. It is not right,” he said. Commenting further on the government's goal to reach zero new cases of Ebola by Christmas, JFD Boss noted that it will require a collective commitment from everyone to see the virus down to zero.

He said commitment does not come alone, but with integrity, adding that the combination of commitment and integrity leads to success. Explained Dr. Kateh: “And when you hit success, success leads you to zero.

So that is the path we are taking towards going to zero as we move towards RITE strategy. One of the things that we have seen during the process of fighting Ebola is that when the community got involved we saw a drastic change.

In disaster preparedness, we learned that every disaster begins at the community and it ends at the community so the community has to be empowered, educated and take ownership. And when the community takes ownership definitely success is just close. To fully ensure to get RITE right is to empower the county health team.”

Dr. Kateh maintained that the Incident Management System is using the Rapid Isolation and Treatment of Ebola (RITE) strategy to now combat the pockets of Ebola outbreak across the country. “The RITE strategy is what we think will be the best solution in order to make sure that we get to zero,” he said.