News

Zmapp

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

Sierra Leone’s deputy health minister has criticises the use of the experimental drug for Ebola, ZMapp saying it is “a new drug and we cannot draw sound inference on its safety and efficacy having been tested on just three patients”.

By Steven Bockarie Mansaray

The authorities in Koinadugu, the only district in Sierra Leone without a confirmed Ebola case, have declared a weeklong curfew effective last night, Monday 25 August.

The Chairman of the Koinadugu District Council, Samuel Sheku Kamara made the announcement over the weekend which he said followed a decision by the district Ebola task force and was a means to keep the disease at bay.

He said the curfew would last from 8:00 PM to 07:00 AM.

The World Health Organisation says it will evacuate one of its expatriate staff who has tested positive for the Ebola virus.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, the WHO Assistant Director General for  Health Security, Dr Keiji Fukuda said the Senegalese epidemiologist who was based in Kailahun and is now at the treatment centre there, would be evacuated for further treatment. He did not say when or to where.

Over the weekend the unnamed official became the first WHO worker to test positive for Ebola which is wreaking havoc across West Africa.

By Mustapha Kamara

A police constable in the paramilitary OSD division of the Sierra Leone police has complained of “the brutality" of his colleague police officers allegedly meted out on him.

PC 15863, Edwin Kangaju, currently on deployment at the NPA sub-station (2) at Kingharman Road in Freetown told Politico that he was “severely beaten by my own colleagues. My mobile phone and some money were also stolen from me”. He said bullets in his riffle were also disarmed.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has airlifted more than 16 tons of medical supplies and emergency equipment to Monrovia to step up Liberia's Ebola response.

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

By Bampia James Bundu

In collaboration with Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority and USA Centres for Disease Control, the Sierra Leone Airports Authority has completed a day’s training on primary and secondary screening procedures on Ebola Virus Disease.