aimed at containing the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on Saturday
amid criticism that the action was a poorly planned publicity stunt.
Most of Sierra Leone's six million people have been confined to their
homes from midnight (0000 GMT) on Friday, with only essential workers
such as health professionals and security forces exempt.
Almost 30,000 volunteers are going door-to-door to educate locals and
hand out soap, in an exercise expected to lead to scores more patients
and bodies being discovered in homes.
But independent observers have voiced concerns over the quality of
advice being given out, deeming the shutdown a "mixed success" in the
Western Area, the region that includes the capital Freetown.
"While the supervisors were well trained, the visiting teams to
families in some parts in the Western Area had poor training and could
not deliver the information properly," said Abubakarr Kamara, from the
Health for All Coalition, a local charity.
"From my observation, many of them were too young to be involved in
the exercise and in one or two households where I witnessed their
intervention, there were hardly messages given to the families which
were beneficial to the households."
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