By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
As Sierra Leone is fighting to get to zero on the deadly Ebola epidemic, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NERC of the National Ebola Response Center(NERC), Retired Major Palo Conteh, has said Moa Wharf, a slum in the east of Freetown, is the new hot spot for the disease in the country.
Conteh was speaking to journalists at the weekly press briefing at the Special Court premises in Freetown. He said the community started recording new confirmed cases of the Ebola Virus disease as a result of negligence on the part of some members in the community who decided to hide and give care to a sick individual.
He said as a result of that more people in the community have been reported ill and some have lost their lives to the disease just in few weeks after being infected.
“All of our confirmed EVD cases for the Western Area, from last week to date, are from Moa Wharf,” the CEO said.
Conteh blamed the attitude of the community people in Moa Wharf and in Kambia, the other hotspot indentified by the center, for Sierra Leone`s the country`s failure to get to zero new cases.
The NERC boss said was now investigating a new positive Ebola case that was reported in Koinadugu district recently, after the district had gone 36 days without recording any new Ebola confirmed case.
“Now is not the time for complacency, for as long as we have Ebola in any community, Ebola threatens the whole country,” the retired major general said.
Even though the country was not able to meet its last stipulated deadline that was set to get to zero on the Ebola virus, Conteh told pressmen that he was optimistic that the disease was coming to an end, citing the fact that the figures were declining considerably. He said Sierra Leone had recorded 9 and 10 cases respectively in the past two weeks, a figure which were much better than those in the previous months.
Meanwhile, the NERC CEO also revealed that Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia had pleaded for the sum of 8.3 billion dollars for medium and long term post Ebola recovery plans.
He said representatives from the three Ebola affected countries in West Africa had just returned from meetings in the United States last week, inlcuidng the much reported talks between US President Barack Obama and presidents Alpha Conde of Guinea, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Ellen Johnsoon Sirleaf of Liberia. The three leaders also attended meetings at the World Bank and other international organizations in the US.
Conteh said the money needed was to implement national post Ebola plans in the affected countries.
“What we have agreed on is to have a Mano River Union plan …and the immediate funding that we are looking for the three countries in total is 8.3 billion dollars,” Conteh said.
He said the World Bank had already donated about six hundred and fifty million dollars and expressed hope that more nations and institutions would come on board to provide more funds.
Palo Conteh said the three African nations hope to raise a substantial amount of funds at pending conferences at the United Nations and the African Union in Equatorial Guinea. Both meetings are scheduled for this July.
The NERC boss encouraged all Sierra Leoneans to avoid being complacent and to adhere to the advice given by the country’s national Ebola response team and medical doctors to prevent the further spread of the virus.
© Politico 23/04/15
