By Richmond B. Tholley
According to a situational report from health authorities on the Mpox outbreak, Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone, has recorded two cases.
On the 14th of January 2025, the report says a seven-year-old boy was brought to the Lion Heart Hospital in Yele, Gbonkolenke Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, from a village in the Valunia Chiefdom in the Bo District.
The seven-year-old boy, the report further said, was triaged at the hospital triage and later isolated in the hospital isolation unit for being suspected of Mpox.
“The medical officer in charge of the hospital reviewed the patient and was further ascertained as a suspected case of Mpox,” the report reads.
It was reported that the District Medical Officer and the Head of Surveillance were notified immediately.
It was agreed that samples of the patient be collected and sent to the laboratory for confirmation. The sample was collected the same day but was shipped to the reference laboratory in Freetown the following morning since it was already late in the evening, according to a report from the health authorities in the district.
The District Medical Officer later made a follow-up in the afternoon with the Head of Surveillance at the NPHA on the outcome of the sample, which was sent to the laboratory in Freetown earlier on that day.
The DMO in Tonkolili District, the report says, later disclosed that the sample was POSITIVE for Mpox and that the health workers should start doing the needful until the results were officially published.
The surveillance team at Tonkolili DHMT and the medical officer in charge of Lion Heart Hospital were immediately notified by the district medical officer.
According to the report, contact tracing and line listing were commenced, and the District Medical Officer of Bo District was informed of the confirmed case in Tonkolili District, which hailed from a community in his District.
Like his counterpart in Tonkolili District, the DMO in Bo District immediately took action and dispatched his surveillance team to assist in the contact tracing in the community where the case was reported to have come from.
Identified contacts from both sides so far are being closely monitored.
The response is collaboratively carried out by both districts through information sharing.
The seven-year-old boy was reported to have improved. Meanwhile, a new case was reported again in the district on the 20th of January 2024.
In all of these, the DMO has called on residents to remain calm and report to the health authorities any suspected case.
