By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Vice chairman of APC in Kono, who was allegedly treating Adamu Ezeh’s 95-year-old mother that later died at home of the Ebola Virus Disease and resident of the same address, has refused to be quarantined.
Abdul Sesay, who claimed to be a pharmacist, worked with the political party registration commission’s Ebola respond team in Kono district, supervising quarantined homes as the vice chairman of the team.
Speaking to Politico at their quarantined home on Post Office Road in Koidu, wife of Adamu, Finda Ezeh, complained that the vice chairman of the ruling party in the district, had “utterly refused to be quarantined as they did to them.”
The land lady of the house also described the alleged refusal of Mr. Sesay to be quarantined as “politicising and enjoying preferential treatment in the fight against Ebola in the district,” adding that “the chairman is not above quarantining.”
She also claimed that Mr. Sesay had been a pharmacist operating a small kiosk just 30 metres from the house and that he treated the late woman until her death.
“The last ciprofloxacin drip which was administered to her before her death, was administered by Mr. Sesay,” she alleged, adding that the pharmacist only abandoned the now quarantined house and moved in with APC district chairman, Francis Gbondo Panneh Pani at Bungalow. Mr Sesay was said to have claimed “an internally Ebola displaced person” when he heard that the Ebola surveillance team from Koidu government hospital wasgoing to quarantine the house where he lived.
Mrs Ezeh said that if they were to go by what doctors at the government hospital told them about the Ebola status of the old woman, then there should not be selective action in quarantining them leaving out Mr. Sesay who could be a possible career of the virus.
When contacted Mr. Sesay denied the allegations and described them as “blatant lies aimed at tarnishing my image,” adding that he had left the house to settle with his boss at Bungalow before even the outbreak of the disease in the country.
Although he also denied ever treating the sick old woman, whom doctors at the Koidu referral hospital confirmed had died of Ebola, he later described the health condition of the late woman as “rheumatoid arthritis” but declined to confirm whether she died of that disease.
Doctors said the woman was killed by “stage three level of Ebola”, which meant that anybody who had touched her at the point of death would be a possible carrier of the virus.
The District Medical Officer, DMO, Dr. Manso Dumbuya, confirmed to Politico that they had had information about the APC vice chairman providing medical treating to the late woman and was also residing with them at Post Office Road in Koidu. He said Mr. Sesay had denied he stayed with them. “This has prompted us not to quarantine him, though we are still observing his health conditions as he moves around,” he said.
Asked why Mr. Sesay was not quarantined at home while he was being observed or in one of the holding centres, the DMO responded that “ordinary touch of an Ebola patient cannot get someone effected with the virus.”
Coordinator of a health civil society group in Kono, Health for All Coalition, Lahai Bockarie, said it was a rumour to them. “But if it turns out to be true that the APC vice chairman has refused to be quarantined like all others suspected cases it will amount to biasness and lip service in the treatment of the disease in the district.” He also said “I strongly condemn this act if it turns out to be true,” promising to investigate the matter.
© Politico 07/11/14
