No Handshaking in Ganta

<b>…As Ebola Patients Transferred to JFK Hospital

The outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic disease in neighboring Guinea has not only characterized health scare in Liberia, it has also become a tool beginning to restrict a norm of Liberia, the gesture of handshaking. Since Sunday when news started filtering from Zorzor and Foyah in Lofa reporting the crossing of Ebola patients into Liberia, the first advice from health authorities and medical practitioners is warning against handshaking amongst other preventive measures. Now that the Ebola scare has transcended Lofa, moved to Nimba and now Monrovia, handshake has become a menace. With the latest report of Ebola discovery at the Ganta Methodist Hospital, the restriction of handshake has become prevalent in Ganta and other parts of Nimba; Journalist Bill K. Jarkloh reports from Monrovia. Already fear is imminent in the country since the country, Monrovia may follow Nimba restricting handshake in public places as two patients infected with the Ebola Hemorrhagic disease have been transferred to Monrovia from Ganta Methodist Hospital. Our Ganta Correspondent who was contacted confirmed that Ganta Health authorities have admitted to transferring two Ebola patients to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, saying that the fear of Ebola contraction has produced a social effect in Ganta, restricting handshakes amongst the population in that city. “My girl, don’t shake hand with me; you can just wave to speak,” is the reaction of most people in Ganta to handshake in that border city with Guinea since Monday, when the news of Ebola discovery in the Ganta Hospital started spreading like wildfire. Handshake is a social phenomenon in Liberia. In Liberian sociology, handshake is an expression of greetings, gesture, approval or solidarity amongst the people.

“This Ebola thing will affect our finger-snapping that is uniquely identified with the Liberian culture, Matthew Y. Gonyon,

a resident of Ganta told this reporter from that bordering city of Liberia. Ganta is socially an interactive city along the Liberian-Guinean border in northeastern Liberia; usually people from inside Guinea visit Nimba for leisure and vise, visa. But in the wake of the Ebola scare, the residents in Ganta have begun to restrict their social activities, our Ganta Correspondent Emmanuel Williams have hinted. The journalist quoted a Congolese national who is the Medical Director of the United Methodist Hospital in Ganta , Dr. Claude Monga, as saying that two suspected Ebola patients were over the weekend brought from a region bordering Guinea to Liberia, Jaykay (spelling may be faulty) from inside Guinea. But Dr. Monga, who said he has seen the symptoms of the patients familiar with those of Ebola infected persons he experience in his home Congo, noted how the patients were bleeding from their spores. He said because the Hospital did not have room for them, they were transferred to the John F. Kennedy Hospital Sunday for further medical attention. He added that additional patients that suffered gunshot wound from industrial action taken across the border came along with the two suspected Ebola patients. Before the press conference by Dr. Monga, the Medical Director of the G. W. Harley Hospital in Sanniquellie, Dr. Laurie Cooper, called for a quick impact project that will create space to secure Ebola patients coming from Guinea and discoveries that could be made in Nimba. Dr. Cooper was addressing a forum for the induction of Nimba County superintendent in Sanniquellie. She informed the Nimba Legislative Caucus to take her call seriously is at Liberia’s border with Guinea and has already started to receive Ebola patients from that neighboring country where an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic disease is reported. The female medical doctor indicated the rest of Nimba County could be at risk with the Ebola disease spreading like wildfire. Already, the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare has announce the outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic disease in neighboring Guinea, calling on Liberians to adhere to preventive health tips that the ministry was availing to the public.