By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), Alfred Palo Conteh, Wednesday said the road to getting zero-infection in the fight against the Ebola epidemic was getting bumpy.
The NERC boss made the statement during the usual press briefing at the former Special Court building at New England in Fretown. He pointed accusing fingers at people, in various communities in the country, who he said were not yielding to the directives of NERC and health authorities.
“We were making progress, recorded two cases the previous week, gone for 8 consecutive days without a case but people still continue to do the wrong things,” he lamented. The retired major made specific reference to the Ebola patient who recently escaped from Moa Wharf slum, Saidu Conteh, whose friends and family members defied NERC’s directive to call 117 whenever there was a suspected case.
The Ebola escapee, who died Wednesday, was hunted by NERC investigation team yet his loved ones decided to keep and care for him at home instead of taking him to the Ebola treatment centre. Such an action is among the key factors encouraging the spread of the virus in the country, the NERC CEO said.
“Today, Saidu is dead and 52 more people have now been isolated,” he said.
As a similar situation rears its head in the Northern district of Kambia, where five family members are on the run from a quarantined home, the NERC boss said the death of Saidu Conteh should serve as a lesson.
“You will not survive Ebola by running away from quarantine or by caring for the sick in hiding. You can only spread the sickness to others.”
Major Conteh then warned the public against complacency citing the case of Port Loko district where, he said, new infections were being recorded after the district had gone for 32 days with no case. However, the NERC boss informed the press that the safe and dignified burial Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) remained in force. He said three chiefdoms in Kambia, which he described as transmission chains, had been reduced to one. He therefore appealed to the District Ebola Response Centre (DERC) in Kambia, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and descendants of the district to be more vigilant.
“Reports of people escaping from quarantined homes at this time of the response process would not be acceptable,” he stressed.
As Western Are continues to pose a challenge to the Ebola fight, Major Conteh singled out Moa Wharf community as one of the areas where he said new cases were happening as a result of the cluster of people in such community.
The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which broke out in the country in May 25 last year has claimed the lives of over 3000 people in Sierra Leone alone. At this point, according to NERC, only five patients are in treatment centres across the country.
According to the World Health Organisation set standards, Sierra Leone will start the zero-count only when the last patient is released from any of the country’s treatment centres.
© Politico 21/05/15
