PTMCC – Press Briefing
9th September, 2014 – I am pleased to introduce the Presidential Taskforce Media Communications Committee (PTMCC). This Committee was created by H.E. Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma with the mandate to develop a communications strategy that will handle and respond to all Ebola related media and communications issues as well as to mitigate its attendant social, political, economic and psychosocial implications in the fight against Ebola on behalf of the Presidential Taskforce.
Indeed, the Committee in collaboration with SLAJ has developed a comprehensive roadmap with clear benchmarks geared towards mitigating the foregoing implications as well as to serve as the vehicle through which the President’s vision, achievements and challenges of the Presidential Taskforce on Ebola as well as the Ebola updates from the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) would be disseminated on a daily basis. This Committee would also utilize materials from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the EOC to sensitize and educate the public in the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) prevention.
Many of you may want to ask; why do we need to host a parallel media outlet at SLAJ for this purpose when we can get the daily updates from the EOC?
Well, I will endeavour to answer my own question: As familiar as I am with the Media, I know that you all need your fresh scoops of the day. As a Government, we cannot be on all the media outlets at once and I know that media operatives are very unlikely to repeat breaking news from competing outfits. Therefore, we have decided to make it our duty to consolidate all the happenings of the day including our successes, our challenges and our losses so that we can convey it to the media under one umbrella here at SLAJ for wider dissemination to the general public. This will include our responses and positions to international concerns and issues. We are confident that through this means, we will garner and foster the much needed cooperation from the media in this difficult war against the Ebola. Above all, whereas we are very appreciative of our international partners in the fight against the Ebola, we will utilize this forum to air our own positions on matters bordering on global issues and positions, respond to blatant misinformation as well as challenge culturally insensitive and politically incorrect statements against us.
We all know that sometime around the end of 2013, cases of strange deaths from a fever were recorded around the Manor River Basin. In December, the patient zero in the present outbreak was traced to a two year old child in Guinea. The virus spread into Liberia along our common borders in the basin and into Sierra Leone in May 2014.
The fact of the matter is from our inexperience disposition to the Ebola compounded by our porous borders, no amount of preparedness was going to be enough to save us from the situation we are now in without an unwavering input from the international community. Many challenges were faced along the way including a failed technical advice from WHO about border protection and quarantining alongside a very slow paced response from the international community.
This morning, I listened to the AU spokesman on BBC alleging that there are no borders to be closed in the affected region because the borders are imaginary. What is wrong with that statement? I asked myself; well, we are yet to see a full response from the AU that is sufficient enough to demonstrate that the Ebola attack on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is a continental attack.
Despite the above, H.E. Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma took the bull by the horns. He responded with structures at national and local levels such as the establishment of the Presidential Taskforce and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as well as the disbursement of money to support the structures in the tune of 50b Leones. The President proclaimed a public health emergency, which he later scaled up to the public state of emergency: he declared a day of reflection, family sensitization and education; and he quarantined two epicenters, Kailahun and Kenema districts. To strengthen and to enforce the emergency policies, the President has invoked the Military Aid to Civil Power (MAC-P) and developed the local government by laws. More contract tracers and burial teams are being recruited and trained as well as the announcement of improved incentives payment to healthcare workers.
The President has been relentless in his bilateral, multilateral and global engagements all aimed at drawing the attention of the world community to our plight. Evidently, we have seen renewed efforts and commitments from the United Nations family including the WHO and other partners. The Chinese are also here with materials including testing laboratories. It will also please you to know that the Chinese have rolled in their Jui Chinese Friendship hospital into the fight against Ebola where one of their labs would be installed and from where their CDC staff would operate.
To inject steroids into the fight on Ebola and make it more robust, Government has procured 30 mini vans locally to hasten the removal of bodies. Government has just received 16 brand new ambulances out of 20, which have been immediately rolled into the fight against the Ebola. Above all, Government has appointed a renowned and experienced social scientist as the Chief of Emergency Operations of the EOC. Plans are underway to roll in 12 deputy ministers into the fight against the Ebola to provide political will and leadership around the country.
You will agree with me that through your newfound patriotism in this fight, your efforts and responses in the media to the fight against the Ebola, our people have been sensitized enough that the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) is a killer disease, but you will also agree with me that we have been educated enough that EVD can be prevented through simple hygiene and through zero touch practices. We have also been told that if you turn yourself in early into the treatment centers, you will increase your chance of survival, you will be cured and you will return home to your loved ones. Therefore, I am pleased to inform you that, the most critical policy, the House to House Family sensitization on Ebola, has been approved by His Excellency the President of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma and will be implemented from the 19th to the 21st September 2014.
Please allow me to dilate on why this is very important. If you don’t recall, let me remind you that the confirmed cases of EVD was at its height during the house to house search in Kailahun and Kenema. It was a bit alarming, but we were quick enough to explain to the public that in fact we are on track in the fight against the Ebola otherwise these people would have been in the communities infecting more people. That catching them in their homes and communities was a good thing. Evidently, we have seen a gradual plunge in the confirmed cases thereafter.
Whereas we have great respect and appreciation for those who have come to help and support us in this difficult time of our existence, we also want to take some responsibility for our actions and decisions; we want to avoid past mistakes we have made based on the fear of our inexperience in fighting this new kind of war; and we are willing to debate the issues and disagree to agree. Therefore, in spite of the expressed critical observation from one of our most appreciated partners, Medècine Sans Frontières (MFS) in this fight, we will respectfully proceed with the House to House Family sensitization on Ebola.
We will endeavour to remind you, constantly on a daily basis in this daily press briefings, that we may observe another spike in confirmed EVD cases with the implementation of the of the House to House Family sensitization on Ebola for the purpose of preparing you so that you can in turn, through your media outlets, prepare the minds of our people that there may be another spike in the EVD confirmed cases. This will go a long way to help to mitigate the looming panic once the testing results start to roll out of the laboratories as well as allay the fear of our critics. These are some of the social and psychosocial implication the president foresaw when he established this Committee for the purpose of addressing them.
To ensure effective management and efficient service delivery, the EOC leadership meetings schedule was revised to Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday whilst the pillar meetings will be held on a daily basis. The decision was made to dedicate more time to pillar deliberations and implementation of recommendations. The EOC coordination team and pillars should develop Standard Operational Procedure to guide and define operations at national and district level. Payment of allowances for contact tracers by government and partners should be harmonized to avoid operational challenges. A strategy should be developed to monitor the operations of contact tracers so as to measure the output as well as ensure that suspected cases are traced.
Let me discuss some startling statistics you may not be privy to: We have almost equal infection cases across gender lines. But interestingly, it will amaze you to know that, by far, young people in the age bracket of 15-49 are the most affected by the EVD. More than 700 young people have contacted the Ebola out of the about 1000 infected persons between May 23 – August 27 2014. Reasons may be that young people are the most willing people in the bad business of running off with their sick parents. They are also the most socially charged people with increased chances of contacting the virus. As a government, we beseech you to fight harder because; this startling revelation means that the Ebola is after our most productive population. Take this message out of here, far and wide, that the Ebola is a killer of young people. For the children whose parents are victims of EVD, there are structures in place between the Ministry of Social Welfare, Children and Gender Affairs and Save the Children organization to take care of them
Until we meet again tomorrow, let me conclude by stating that the Ebola is a killer which can be prevent and in our efforts to prevent the Ebola and kick the Ebola out of Sierra Leone we must be united in this effort. Lastly, if you are not with us, you are with the bug and it will be unfortunate to be with the bug because about six million people are united to delete the bug along with its accomplices.
I thank you all.
Karamoh Kabba, Deputy Minister of Political and Public Affairs and National Coordinator of the Presidential Taskforce Media Communications Committee Office of the Chairman, Presidential Taskforce Media Communications Committee State House, Sierra Leone© 2014, https:. All rights reserved.
