Sierra Leone starts three-day shutdown to contain spread of Ebola disease
Residents are confined to their homes in a bid to contain the disease; UN Security Council labels the outbreak a threat to world peace
PUBLISHED : Friday, 19 September, 2014, 10:22pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 20 September, 2014, 8:09am
Agence France-Presse in Freetown
Officials in Sierra Leone are hoping their three-day shutdown will uncover more Ebola cases. Photo: EPA
Sierra Leone yesterday launched a controversial three-day shutdown of the entire nation in a desperate bid to contain the spread of the Ebola virus, as the UN Security Council declared the outbreak a threat to world peace.
Most of Sierra Leone's population of six million were confined to their homes from midnight, with only essential workers such as health professionals and members of the security forces exempt from the lockdown.
Almost 30,000 volunteers will go door-to-door to educate locals and hand out soap, in an exercise that could lead to scores more patients and bodies being discovered in people's homes.
Health experts have criticised the shutdown, arguing that coercive measures to stem the epidemic could backfire and would be extremely hard to implement.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that lockdowns may end up driving people underground "and jeopardise the trust between people and health providers".
But Sierra Leonean President Ernest Koroma said that if the population were to heed the volunteers' advice, "the campaign will greatly help to reverse the increasing trend of the disease transmission and become a very big boost to our collective effort to stop the outbreak".
"These are extraordinary times and extraordinary times require extraordinary measures," added Koroma in a television and radio message.
The move comes amid mounting global concern over the Ebola epidemic, which has killed 2,600 people in West Africa.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that the "unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security".
It called for immediate aid and urged nations to lift travel and border restrictions, and asked airlines and shipping companies to maintain their links with affected countries.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would create a special mission to combat the disease and deployed staff in the worst-affected states.
"The gravity and scale of the situation now require a level of international action unprecedented for a health emergency," Ban said. He added that he would appoint a special envoy to head the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, which will push a "rapid and massive mobilisation" of people and money.
"This international mission ... will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks," Ban told the Security Council.
More than 550 people have died from the disease in Sierra Leone alone, one of the three hardest-hit nations alongside Guinea and Liberia.
More than 7,000 volunteer teams of four will visit the country's 1.5 million homes over the next few days.
They will educate locals on how to prevent infection, as well as set up neighbourhood watch-style community Ebola surveillance teams.
The government has said the volunteers will not enter people's homes but will call emergency services to deal with patients or bodies.
The government is projecting an upsurge in cases of up to 20 per cent as new patients are discovered.
The lockdown has been broadly welcomed in Freetown.
"We shall be praying that the operation will end the scourge. We support the government," said 60-year-old Samuel Johnson, who recently lost a daughter to Ebola.
- Malta has refused entry to a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship with a Filippino on board who was showing symptoms of Ebola, citing fears the virus might spread to the island.
- Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Malta was legally and morally right to refuse to let the MV Western Copenhagen come into port on Thursday. The ship, carrying 21 crewmen, had left from Guinea on its way to the Ukraine, and the captain had sought to dock in Malta to get medical treatment for the crewman. "We cannot endanger our health system," Muscat said.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Associated Press
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Members of Ebola education team killed by villagers in Guinea
Eight bodies, including those of three journalists, were found after an attack on a team trying to educate people in a remote area of southeastern Guinea about the risks of the Ebola virus, a government spokesman said
"The eight bodies were found in the village latrine. Three of them had their throats slit," Damantang Albert Camara said.
Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana, speaking in a television message, said six people had been arrested following the incident on Tuesday. The country's southeast was where the current outbreak of Ebola disease, which is the worst on record and has spread through West Africa, began in March.
Authorities in the region are faced with widespread fears, misinformation and stigma among residents of the affected countries, complicating efforts to contain the highly contagious disease.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the violence, but the spread of Ebola has been accompanied by paranoia and mistrust. Many Guineans believe local and foreign health care workers are part of a conspiracy that either deliberately introduced the outbreak, or invented it as a means of luring Africans to clinics to harvest their blood and organs.
Fofana said the team was attacked by a hostile, stone-throwing crowd when they tried to inform villagers about Ebola. He said it was regrettable the incident occurred as the world was mobilising to help countries struggling to contain the disease.
Reuters. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
