With more than 300 reported cases of Pink Eye, authorities are looking at closing schools throughout the country in a bid to contain the outbreak.
As of yesterday, Ministry of Health’s Director General, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri, said that his staff have been working with the Ministry of Education to assess how many children were home sick as a result of contracting what is also known as conjunctivitis.
“We are trying to get evidence from the Ministry of Education on the absentee rates especially primary school,” he said.
“If we are able to obtain evidence of the extent of the spread of this disease…we might have to collaborate with the Ministry of Education to call off school, especially the primary levels.
“I have already discussed this with the director of M.E.S.C. (Ministry of Education (Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture)…but we need the evidence to back that up, it is not an easy thing to close schools.” He said due to the nature and the fast spread of the virus, his Ministry has sent out all the public awareness materials to the schools.
“So the teachers are advised to be responsible and to send home children who have Pink Eye,” he said.
Leausa said on the other side, workplaces have been very proactive in helping to stop the spread of the disease.
He said only two days ago he was at a supermarket and there was a staff member at the door assessing who could stay at work and who had to go home.
“Which is very encouraging for us,” he said.
“That people are taking responsibility for their health, especially something that spreads very fast like the virus.
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“But I encourage people to be responsible to stay home then even if you are working stay home.”
The Acting A.C.E.O. f o r National Disease Surveillance and International Health Regulations Division, Dr. Saine Vaai-Nielsen said this was the biggest outbreak in Samoa in five years.
“Just off our patient information system this is the update that I gave…on March 18 we saw this is almost like 300 cases for just March alone,” she said.
“Usually every year there is conjunctivitis in the community but not at this blown up rate.
“The data I collected was looking at 2009 until now so…so this is the biggest (outbreak) that we have seen in five years.
“But you know how it can be mild or it can be very severe so not all of them (the patients) are coming to the clinic.
“However, this sort of data is important in things like…closing the schools.”
She said for this reason the National Health Service (N.H.S.) has set up a special clinic situated in the maternity ward of the old hospital.
“They have made a special clinic up at the old hospital just to separate the infections from the out patients,” she said. Leausa said the N.H.S. staff were sending all patients who presented with the disease to the clinic because the hospital did not want to mix diseases.
“The Out Patient ward was where everybody was going to,” he said.
“But now they are directing people to the older hospital because it is obvious if it is Pink Eye.
“The out patients are still dealing with other diseases and medical problems such as wounds, coughs and pneumonia.
“But we don’t want a man, for example, who comes to the hospital with asthma to get Pink Eye because then he will be even worse.”
Leausa said as this strain of Pink Eye is viral in nature, antibiotics will not help and that steroids may or may not help as it depends on the person and that it is best to consult your doctor.
“But most of the severe cases presented to us are because they have been adding so many things to their eyes,” he said.
“Because it is a virus, many people panic and they apply – some people went down to the sea and opened their eyes to the sea water.
“Some people tried the juice of some nius which…became a secondary bacterial infection and so they end up here with pus in their eyes.”
He said that is why the Ministry is focussing on preventative measures.
“We are promoting personal hygiene, such as washing your hands, cleaning cloths, not sharing things that touch your face, even the pillows,” he said.
Leausa advised people to stay at home for three to five days. Dr Vaai-Nielsen added that more often than not the virus would just pass by itself.
“But when you start having pain and blurring and more complications then you should go to the hospital,” she said.
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