Health authorities in the province of Huíla control two cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, in the neighborhoods of Machiqueira and Comercial Urbano, on the outskirts of the city of Lubango
The data was presented yesterday in the city of Lubango by the director of the Provincial Health Office in Huíla, Paulo Luvangamu, who highlighted that the first case was imported from the neighboring province of Benguela. The head of health in the province of Huíla said that this first case was diagnosed during a blood donation campaign in one of the health units in the capital of Huíla.
“As soon as our epidemiological surveillance team was notified of the patient, he was contacted and immediately underwent analysis. The second case, in which the patient is a lady, was diagnosed at Hospital da Machiqueira,” he revealed. On the other hand, Paulo Luvangamo assured that the province’s hospitals are all prepared to treat cases of the disease, should it spread throughout this region. Still, he warns the population to redouble measures to prevent the disease so that it does not spread.
Our interlocutor explained that it is necessary for families to pay greater attention to the symptoms of the disease to enable timely intervention by medical services. “Viral hemorrhagic conjunctivitis is a highly contagious disease, its main symptoms are redness of the eyes, itching and photophobia, that is, insensitivity to bright areas on the part of patients”, he highlighted.
He then recommended that “as soon as someone in the family presents these symptoms, they should immediately report it to the health authorities”. Paulo Luvangamo also guaranteed that all health units in the province of Huíla are prepared, both in terms of medicines and in technical and human resources. Without providing numbers, the person in charge informed that the Provincial Health Office in Huíla is also concerned regarding the particular increase in malaria cases, which have been worsening due to the negligence of many families, in relation to the use of recently distributed mosquito nets. “As part of the Malaria Combat Program, we distributed impregnated mosquito nets to families and, unfortunately, many of them prefer to use them for fishing and agriculture”, he reported.