Ebola survivors
Sixty people who had tested positive for Ebola have been cured of the haemorrhagic fever, according to a press release from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation issued yesterday.
This, since the outbreak started in May.
They have been duly discharged from the treatment centre and told to go home.
At one such discharge witnessed by Politico, two "survivors" clutched their discharge certificates and laughed understandably loudly that you could count all their teeth.
On the flip side however, yesterday's release says the cumulative number of laboratory-confirmed cases stands at 346 people with 110 of them dead, making last week the deadliest since the onset of the outbreak - with 30 people killed and nearly 70 new cases recorded.
The new cases include an Egyptian national who was resident in Kenema but had his blood sample taken in Freetown.
A health ministry spokesman, Sidi Yahya Tunis told Politico that North African, the first foreigner to test positive for the disease in Sierra Leone, had started showing signs of it in Kenema but travelled to Freetown where he was admitted to an Arab-run hospital where he allegedly hid himself receiving treatment.
The hospital at 105 Kissy Road, has been shut down.
Assistant Inspector General of Police for eastern Freetown, Memuna Conteh said they shut it down on the orders of the health ministry.
She said health officials had complained that they harboured the Egyptian and did not turn him over to the appropriate health authorities.
The AIG said while bolting the hospital they, they found one teenager receiving some treatment inside it.
Amid all this, laboratory technicians at the only Ebola-testing facility in the country have suspended their weekend strike action over the non-payment of a promise Le 100,000 (one hundred thousand leones) monthly risk allowance.
Some of the dozens of workers at the lab told Politico that they had decided on the suspension following pleas by their boss, James Massallay to consider the present situation of the outbreak.
The health workers' union and the authorities are locked in negotiations to resolve the impasse.
Meanwhile religious leaders have called for three days of fasting for an end the spread of the disease which has now reached the south and the north.
(C) Politico 15/07/14
