In a desperate effort to
bring the outbreak under
control, thousands of health
care workers began going
house to house in crowded
urban neighborhoods and remote villages, hoping to
find and isolate infected
people. President Ernest Bai Koroma
urged his countrymen to
cooperate.
"The survival and dignity of
each and every Sierra
Leonean is at stake," he said Thursday night in an
address to the nation. Health officials said they
planned to urge the sick to
leave their homes and seek
treatment. There was no
immediate word on
whether people would be forcibly removed, though
authorities warned that
anyone on the streets
during the lockdown
without an emergency pass
would be subject to arrest. More than 2,600 people have
died in West Africa over the
past nine months in the
biggest outbreak of the
virus ever recorded, with
Sierra Leone accounting for more than 560 of those
deaths. Many fear the crisis will
grow far worse, in part
because sick people afraid
of dying at treatment
centers are hiding in their
homes, potentially infecting others. However, international
experts warned there
might not be enough beds
for new patients found
during the lockdown,
which runs through Sunday. Most people seemed to be
taking the order seriously,
and there were no
immediate reports of
resistance. "It will protect our country
from this dangerous virus,"
said Ishmail Bangura, a
Freetown resident. "Many
of our people have died -
nurses and doctors, too - so if they ask us to stay home
for three days, for me it is
not bad." Across West Africa, health
care workers have been
attacked by villagers who
accused them of spreading
Ebola. Some citizens have
also violently resisted efforts to quarantine them.
As the lockdown took
effect, wooden tables lay
empty at the capital's
usually vibrant markets,
and only a dog scrounging for food could be seen on
one normally crowded
street in Freetown.
Amid the heat and frequent
power cuts, many residents
sat on their front porches, chatting with neighbors. Ambulances were on
standby to bring any sick
people to the hospital for
isolation. The health care
workers also planned to
hand out 1.5 million bars of soap and dispense advice on
Ebola.
"We hope and pray that
when we talk to people
they will take it as
counseling," said Rebecca Sesay, a community Ebola
education team leader.
"That is why we are all out
here." The World Health
Organization said it has no
record of any previous
nationwide shutdown of
this scale and suggested it
has not happened since the plague devastated Europe
during the Middle Ages.
The closest parallel seems to
have been a plague scare in
India in 1994, when officials
closed off a region around the city of Surat, shutting
down schools, offices,
movie theaters and banks.
UNICEF said the
government campaign
provides an opportunity to tell people how to protect
themselves. "If people don't have access
to the right information,
we need to bring lifesaving
messages to them, where
they live, at their
doorsteps," said Roeland Monasch, UNICEF
representative in Sierra
Leone.
In a statement, the U.N.
children's agency said the
operation needs to be carried out "in a sensitive
and respectful manner." U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon told the General
Assembly on Friday that
the U.N.'s new force to fight
Ebola, the U.N. Mission for
Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will be
headquartered in Accra,
Ghana and will have offices
in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra
Leone.
"The mission will ... emphasize community
outreach, training and
education," Ban said.
"Misunderstandings about
the disease and how it is
transmitted have hindered the response. Local leaders,
including traditional and
religious leaders, have
important roles to play in
raising awareness."
In the latest case of violence against health care
workers, six suspects have
been arrested in the killings
of eight people in Guinea
who were on an Ebola
education campaign, the Guinean government said
Friday. The victims were attacked
by villagers armed with
rocks and knives. The dead
included three local
journalists. www.pijango..com.es/2014/09/sierra-leone-commences-three-day.html?m=1

God help them

May they find peace and good health that will make them happy.