By Bampia Bundu & Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Information minister, Alpha Khanu says Ebola would only continue to be a problem if communities are not involved in the fight, noting that Ebola prevention is 10% medication and 90% social mobilisation.
“We have lost about 420 compatriots while others are still hospitalised since the outbreak of Ebola in the country,” he told an emergency press briefing at the conference hall of the ministry of information.
Kanu also expressed delight at UNICEF for recently landing an aircraft with medical supplies.
National coordinator of the Emergency Operation Centre, Stephen Gaojia said that on September 19 a three-day nationwide stay-at-home would start aimed at containing the spread of Ebola. He said the campaign was a strategic approach to social mobilisation.
“We have done a lot of planning prior to the campaign which will be presented to the presidential taskforce for approval,” Ngaoja said. He furthered that the lockdown period was not a military exercise, but rather a goal meant to break the chain of transmission of the Ebola virus disease.
He urged that health workers, community based organisations, volunteers and nongovernmental organisations would be enlisted to carry out the exercise with the team specifically trying “to reach all houses, to increase community acceptance of the existence of the Ebola virus, to promote hand washing at household levels, to increase public confidence and trust, and to establish neighbourhood watch structures”.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nuhu Masha, the UNICEF Focal Person in Sierra Leone commended the proposed plans saying it was good that government had come up with such measures. He observed that two major areas where people could easily contract the disease would be the home and health facilities.
“This underscores the need for personal interaction between health workers and communities so that the Ebola virus will be defeated in Sierra Leone”, he said.
(C) Politico 09/09/14
