More Malawians travelling to Ebola affected countries -KIA statistics

A lot of Malawians are travelling to Ebola affected countries in West Africa, statistics from Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) have indicated.

The statistics indicate that since August 8 – 28 this year, 155 travellers from the affected countries of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Uganda were screened at KIA.

“43 percent of them were put on surveillance for a period of 21 days to check if they developed and signs and symptoms of the disease but all of them negative,” reads the statistics.

The  61 percent of those screened were Malawians who went to these countries to attend workshops and conferences.

This means that more Malawians are travelling to Ebola affected countries than people from west Africa coming into the country.

The development comes at a time when the Ministry of Health (MoH) is yet to get K280 million needed to fully prepare for any Ebola outbreak in the country.

Currently, there is need for more Ebola detecting equipment in boarders,  patient supportive care equipment, building of isolation facilities and expanding lab capacity in the country.

Health Minister Dr Jean Kalirani said over the past four weeks, government have taken early supportive treatment as paramount with efforts on preventing its occurance in the country.

Last month, Public Health Institute of Malawi Deputy Director Dr Mathews Kagoli told journalists that so far, they have managed to designate and prepare central hospitals as treatment centers in case there is an outbreak and all district have rapid response teams on the same.