“The hospital has alerted a team of medical staff to check cases of diarrhea to make sure they are not symptoms of diseases such as cholera amid the outbreak in Wasu area,” acting hospital CEO Dr. Polapoi Chalau said.
Two villages in Wasu in the Sialum district of Finschhafen were hard hit by cholera with eight deaths so far and more than 80 people infected while in the
Minima Mountains, more than 80 people have died and nearly 3000 are affected by flu and dysentery.
The National Department of Health and the World Health Organization have been flying medical supplies into Wasu to combat the outbreak. Medical teams are already in Menyamya waiting for helicopters to fly them to remote villages.
Chalau said the hospital had activated a management plan in collaboration with the PNG Defense Force’s engineering battalion from Igam and the international medical mission, Doctors Without Borders.
Sappers from the army battalion erected three field hospital tents and a command centre in preparation for the airlift of seriously ill dysentery and influenza patients from Menyamya.
Meanwhile, two medical experts warned that cholera was more common in adults and without any medical intervention, it could kill a person within four to six hours.
