By Joseph Lamin Kamara
A new report launched yesterday by the civil society group, Focus 1000 says 97% of the population of Sierra Leone now believe that Ebola exists in the country, urging planners to go beyond awareness raising activities about the disease.
The report, titled "Study on Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to EVD Prevention and Medical Care in Sierra Leone", says "people have now moved from the state of denial to the state of fear and stigmatization."
The Chief Executive Officer of Focus 1000 Alhaji Bailor Jalloh said at the launch of the report at SLAJ headquarters that there was urgent need to develop evidence-based techniques to give hope and examine high level of stigma and discrimination towards Ebola-infected persons.
The researcher, Mohamed F. Jalloh said the report was based on a survey conducted in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services and UNICEF between 20th and 25th of August this year targeting "1413 people in all of Sierra Leone in a random sample."
According to the report, 96% of Sierra Leoneans "reported some discriminatory attitude towards people suspected of having Ebola," while "76% would not welcome someone back into their community" after they recover from Ebola.
CEO for Focus 1000, Alhaji Bailoh Jalloh said there were serious misconceptions associated with the Ebola disease. He said 30% of Sierra Leoneans felt that Ebola could be contracted from mosquitoes and 30% believed that the disease could be transmitted through the air and "20% believe that Ebola can be treated successfully by spiritual healers" while "42% believe that bathing with salt and hot water can prevent Ebola."
The report however states that there was fairly high knowledge of prevention against the disease and that 87% of the people surveyed, agreed that one should avoid fluids of infected people and 91% believed that an Ebola-infected person had a higher chance of survival if they went to hospital in good time.
UNICEF representative in Sierra Leone, Roeland Monasch said "these findings indicate that the focus of social mobilisation messaging should shift from awareness of how it is transmitted to addressing misconceptions." Monasch said rumours and misconceptions were dangerous because they divert people’s attention from real messages needed to break the chain of transmission of the disease.
Michael Ghebrab, Country Representative of CRS said many studies had proved that radio was a powerful means of information transmission, but there was a need for "messages to be clear and standardised."
According to the Focus 1000 CEO, his organisation collaborated with the health ministry because "we used the ministry as respondents to compare the views of the health ministry with to that of the public. But the ministry and the government did not sponsor the study".
(C) Politico 18/09/14
