There appears to be no let-up in the Ebola menace in Sierra Leone. Just two weeks since the haemorrhagic fever was first confirmed in the country the death toll is rising fast.
Sierra Leone's Director of Disease Prevention and Control, Dr Amara Jambai says at least 12 people have died of the disease, doubling the number of deaths just last week.
"It is very difficult for us to ascertain community deaths at this moment, but the 12 deaths are the ones the hospital can definitely confirm to have died of Ebola", inferring that the death toll could be much higher.
Dr Jambai said most of the deaths happened at the Kenema hospital after having been brought there from Kailahun district on the border with Guinea, which is the epicentre.
He said new cases had been recorded in the north of the country especially in another borer district of Kambia.
Of the 113 people tested, 42 have proved positive.
He said an MSF team would soon set up a treatment centre at Koindu, as well as "put in place an isolation unit in Kailahun, Buedu and down to Daru".
The director of disease prevention and control said the disease was spreading fast because they "cannot restrict the movement of people easily".
Civil society activist, Victor Lansana Koroma of Health Alert, says the health ministry should be more robust in spreading out its campaign messages. He also urged the government to declare Ebola as a public emergency which would put more resources at the disposal of health workers.
Already private businesses are taking precaution with the country's largest hotel outside Freetown - Wusum - having indefinitely closed its pool.
(C) Politico 11/06/14
