Ebola patients as the head of the United Nations announced the world
was at "a critical turning point" in the crisis.
Dozens of healthcare workers fanned out across remote parts of Port
Loko district, east of the capital Freetown, after a spike in cases
attributed to unsafe burials and patients being hidden from the
authorities.
"Teams of health workers backed by security personnel are trekking
into outlying areas and knocking on doors of houses... to check whether
people are telling us the truth about not hiding sick people," Morlai
Dumbuya, a coordinator of the operation, told AFP.
"So far we have not met any resistance and people are co-operating."
The two-week operation follows a larger exercise in December, dubbed
the "Western Area Surge", when hundreds of volunteers knocked on doors
across the west of Sierra Leone.
The nation of six million has seen more than 11,000 cases and 3,400
deaths during the epidemic which has raged in west Africa for more
than a year.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council in New York
that proactive leadership by the presidents of Sierra Leone, Liberia
and Guinea was behind the retreat of the epidemic.
"Today, we face a critical turning point. The pattern of the Ebola
outbreak has changed," he said.
"2015 has seen a significant decline in the number of new Ebola cases
in the three affected countries."
Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma had pointed to a "steady
downward trend" in new cases on January 23 as he lifted country-wide
quarantines affecting half the population, declaring that "victory is
in sight".
But optimism gave way to fresh alarm last week as the World Health
Organization (WHO) reported the number of new cases rising in Sierra
Leone and neighbouring Guinea for the second week running.
- Secret burials -
Dumbuya said the increase in cases was due to "a series of secret
burials and hiding of sick people in homes".
Sierra Leone placed 700 homes in the capital Freetown in quarantine on
Friday following the death of a fisherman who tested positive for
Ebola.
Residents and healthcare workers have blamed a recent spike of cases
in the capital on infected people arriving by canoe from remote areas
further up the coast to seek healthcare.
Transmission remains "widespread" in Sierra Leone, which reported 76
new confirmed cases in the week to February 8, according to the WHO.
Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread through
direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing
symptoms such as fever or vomiting or the recently deceased.
Relatives are required by law to report Ebola victims so that they can
be buried safely, as traditional funeral rites involving the washing
of bodies was one of the key early factors in the spread of the
epidemic.
The WHO said on Tuesday 9,365 people had died in the outbreak,
although it has admitted that the real picture could be far worse as
many fatal cases may not have been reported.
In the week up to February 8 a total of 144 new confirmed cases were
registered across the three hardest hit countries, compared to 124 the
previous week.
- 'Constant vigilance' -
Ban told the Security Council that more than half of those newly
infected in Guinea and Sierra Leone have not been in contact with
people known to have had Ebola.
"This reminds us that setbacks can quickly follow apparent gains, and
highlights the need for constant vigilance and active surveillance,
even in unaffected areas," he said.
Progress on eradicating the virus had been encouraging in Liberia, said Ban.
"Liberia, once the worst affected country with several hundred cases
per week, has been steadily reporting fewer than five cases per week
for the past month, all isolated to a single chain of transmission in
one county," he reported.
The Liberian government reopened schools this week after a six-month
closure to slow the spread of the virus.
More than 1.3 million children have already returned to classes in
Guinea, according to UNICEF, while Sierra Leone plans to start the new
term at the end of March.
Koroma predicted on Monday that Ebola would cost Sierra Leone $920
million in lost revenue in 2015.
He told business leaders in Freetown manufacturing had contracted by
20 percent last year from a projected on-year growth of 10 percent.
With hotels almost empty, the May-September tourism season saw a 30
percent decline in revenues on the same period a year earlier, he
said.
The government was criticised in a report presented to its parliament
last week showing ministers had lost track of $3.3 million (2.8
million euros) in internal emergency funds to fight the Ebola virus.
--
No comments:
Post a Comment