Schools and daycare centers are among the places classified by experts as epicenters of transmission of this disease. In Luanda, school management has advised infected students to return home and go to the nearest hospital unit, as precautionary measures to avoid contagion
The reporting team from the newspaper OPAÍS visited some schools in the municipalities of Viana, Talatona and Cazenga as well as the urban district of Samba to see how teachers are dealing with these cases. At Primary School 5001, Fidel de Castro, in Viana, deputy director Celeste Tavares assured that students have been instructed, throughout the parade, to return home, in case anyone has an eye problem. Sometimes, such situations have been detected during inspections and guardians have been called to explain the importance of taking the patient to the hospital.
“Last week we had two cases of conjunctivitis, this week six cases, including a cleaning assistant who I also asked to go to the hospital,” he said. The manager of this school, which has 1,366 students, attending from initiation to 6th grade, spread across 12 classrooms, in three shifts, guarantees that they are tightening the grip when it comes to prevention methods. In the municipality of Talatona, the municipal coordinator of the mathematics subject, João Silvestre, said that despite registering 20 cases of conjunctivitis in two weeks at the second cycle school Pedro Maria Tonha “Pedalé”, where he teaches, the situation is under control.
It is a school that has 13 classrooms and a total of approximately 2000 students, teaching in the morning, afternoon and evening. Luciano Lussate, deputy coordinator of Complexo Escolar 3.049, in the municipality of Cazenga, stated that there are some students infected with conjunctivitis who are at home, at the moment, complying with medical guidelines. “We have a total of ten students with conjunctivitis”, he explained.
In turn, the director of Escola do Ensino Primário 1,009, in the municipality of Samba, Maria de Sousa, said that the institution has been fighting hard to combat various diseases, which also include conjunctivitis and cholera. She said that in daily morning sessions she has tried to alert students and in meetings with guardians about prevention measures. “And there have been no cases of conjunctivitis here at our school”, she assured.