Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Mothers in a waiting room at a clinic near Freetown.(file photo)

As parts of efforts to combat the outbreak of the cholera epidemic across the country which has already claimed over 200 lives, President Ernest Koroma has established a task force to help fight the outbreak of cholera in the country.

At the weekly government press briefing held at the Ministry of Information and Communications conference room last Thursday, Chief of Staff, Kelfala Marrah who is also the coordinator of the task force told newsmen that they are working with development partners like civil society organizations CSOs and youth organizations across the country to see that the cholera epidemic is controlled.

"We are working hand in glove with non-state actors to eradicate the disease. CSOs, youth organizations and civil servants have been very much proactive in the fight," he said adding that the treatment is free of charge all over the country and they have been able to sensitize tribal heads, trade organizations, inter religious councils and market women in 27 market places across the country.

Marrah assured the populace that plans are on to come up with a national cleaning day though a time has not been fixed for the exercise. He said they are putting things in order to ensure that no debris is left on the streets after the cleaning exercise.

"From our experience, we have learnt that whenever a national cleaning exercise is implemented, people leave the rubbish all over the city and we don't want that to happen," he assured and thanked the private sector and telecom companies for being helpful in disseminating messages on how to treat the disease. Marrah called on all to put hands on deck and fight cholera as the government cannot do everything.

Expert commander in the control centre of cholera management, Amara Jambai, said they are working hard to see that cholera is out of the country as he revealed that the number of cholera patients has reduced drastically. He also cited Kailaihun as the only district yet to encounter any case of the disease despite the recorded close to 16,000 cases and 254 deaths countrywide.