Gbarnga, Bong County – The Clinical Coordinator of the Bong County Health Team (CHT) has rallied the support of local communities in rural Liberia in helping to make the ongoing Ebola Natural History Study successful.
Report by Edwin Genoway, Jr – [email protected]
Mr. John G. Gleekiah, a Physician Assistant, wants residents of rural communities to not just attend awareness programs in support of the study, but be in the position to spread the word to others.
Gleekiah is a resident of Weala and works in Bong County on the health team.
“On behalf of local health officials here, I would like to thank PREVAIL and the LCP team for this awareness and I want to urge all of you the participants to see this as your own program”.
He was speaking during a community engagement meeting held in New Weala, Margibi County on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 which brought together over 200 participants from Weala and surrounding areas.
According to Mr. Gleekiah, research on the deadly Ebola Virus would help establish a strong medical ground which would better prepare Liberia and the world at large in dealing with future outbreaks.
Also speaking at the meeting, a Representative of the Liberia Crusaders for Peace Daniel Bumie urged residents of Weala and other nearby towns and villages to encourage Ebola survivors to enroll in the PREVAIL-3.
The Natural History study, according to Mr. Bumie, is the prerequisite for enrollment into other sub-studies being conducted by the US-Liberia joint clinical research partnership (PREVAIL).
The on-going birth cohort, eye and other sub-studies are taking place at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, the Duport Road Health Center in Paynesville and the C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata, Margibi County.
Bumie then called on the participants who are survivors and their close contacts to make use of the nearby C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata which is about 25 minutes’ drive from Weala to take part in the study.
The study is a five-year research initiative for Ebola Survivors and their ‘close contacts’ which is being conducted by PREVAIL.
The community engagement in Weala was the second of two held in Margibi County by the Liberia Crusaders for Peace in collaboration with the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia.
Just one was held in Dolo Town, Margibi County, near the Roberts International Airport.
Dolo Town, a densely populated township became famous during the Ebola crisis as it was one of few towns quarantined by the government after massive loss of lives in the area.
During the engagement meeting, residents of the area expressed joy over the fact that the government has encouraged PREVAIL to come to Liberia in trying to find solutions to the numerous medical problems being suffered by Ebola Survivors in the country.
Participants at the forum included Ebola Survivors, traditional and religious leaders, youths and other stakeholders who have come from various villages and towns to converge at Dolo Town for the meeting.
Several PREVAIL sub-studies were highlighted during the meeting including birth cohort, semen collection, the eye study, and close contact, among others.
There were also recommendations for the Crusaders for Peace and PREVAIL to reach out to distance rural villages that may not have access to radio and other means of information.
REVAIL Ebola Natural History Study is targeting about 1,500 survivors and 6, 000 of their close contacts to be examined by a team of Liberian and American research scientists.
The aim is to know whether survivors can transmit the virus to their closed contacts or sexual partners and to also determine if survivors are “immune” or protected from contracting the Ebola virus in the future.