News

By Mustapha Kamara

A local civil society organisation has urged young people to support government’s efforts at containing the further spread of the deadly Ebola virus by complying with the three-day lockdown orders.

Executive director of Anti-Violence Movement in Sierra Leone (AVMSL) Bernard Conteh told journalists yesterday that they were working directly with young people. He said it was therefore their sole responsibility to ensure that young people were mindful of the dangers of the disease and to urge them to join hands in the fight.

Britain is to deploy troops in Sierra Leone to set up a medical treatment centre to deal with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, according to the International Development Secretary, Justine Greening.

The 62-bed facility will be built and operated by military engineers and medical staff with the initial phase ready for use by late October with work starting this week.

A doctor working for the World Health Organisation at the Kenema Ebola clinic has tested positive for Ebola and is said to be in a stable condition, according to a WHO press release.

The unnamed patient becomes the third doctor at the facility to contract the disease after Shek Umar Khan and Sahr Rogers both of whom died.

He has been brought to Freetown awaiting evacuation for treatment abroad. A WHO epidemiologist, from Senegal, also contracted the disease in Kailahun in August and was flown to Germany for treatment.

Dr Abubakarr Fofanah, health minister

By Crispina Cummings

Minister of health-designate has asked the parliamentary committee on appointment to allow him to mobilise resources for burial teams to deliver corpses without delay, “because I don’t want to see any corpse on the streets”.

Madina Rahman, Dep. Min of Health

By Crispina Cummings

Alusine Joaque, Ag. Immigrations director

By Mustapha Kamara

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.