WHO says Solomons outbreak could last weeks

Transcript

The World Health Organisation in Solomon Islands says outbreaks of diarrhoea could continue for up to a month as rotavirus spreads throughout the provinces.

A WHO epidemiologist Jennie Musto says there have been nine outbreaks across Solomon Islands with 16 young children dying and more than a thousand people infected with the illness in the past two weeks.

She says young children are vulnerable as they have little immunity and become dehydrated quickly.

Jenny Meyer asked her what can be done to limit the spread of the illness.

JENNIE MUSTO: The key message really that we're trying to get out to the community is to take your sick child very quickly to a health centre so that then they can be treated oral rehydration salts which are key for managing diarrhoea and replacing losses of fluid, and zinc which actually shortens the duration of the illness. And that's probably the main message. Preventing the disease is difficult because it's very infectious and spreads very easily from person to person, particularly young children young children that are in nappies or you know within families will spread very easily. So washing hands particularly after going to the toilet, or preparing food for others or looking after your sick child is key. And keeping sick children away from other children is also key. But really it's very difficult to control so early treatment is really the most important message that we want people to hear.

JENNY MEYER: How are the Solomon Islands health services coping with this outbreak it seems like that's quite a large number of children to die and then you say up to a thousand people or so have been infected with the virus itself, how are people coping with providing help for those that become unwell?

JM: Well this is information that we're getting from nine outbreaks around the country and those people are presenting over a number of weeks so whilst the burden is high on health centres and hospitals, those one thousand people didn't all kind of present to the same facility at the same time. And what we're actually doing WHO are working with the provincial health directors and the Ministry of Health and medical services to assess how the facilities are coping and make sure that they have adequate supplies for ORS and zinc tablets and everything else that they need.

JM: Do you see the situation getting worse in the next couple of weeks or do you think that its reached its peak and will start to resolve?

JM: Look it's a little difficult to predict. We've seen the outbreaks in Honiara and Guadalcanal subside after two or three weeks of there being high rates of diarrhoea and so it looks like in two of the other provinces there might be a slowing of cases as well. But at the same time we're expecting all provinces to be affected. So we're preparing for, I guess for it to continue at least at this level or at greater level for at least the next few weeks maybe a month or longer.