By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in the Mano River Basin particularly in Sierra Leone has taught both governments and the people very strong lessons.
Though Ebola has been in existence for quite some time in the African continent since it was discovered in then Congo-Zaire in 1976, its true nature was never understood by governments. In spite of effort made by the discoverers compelling African governments to work assiduously for the development of a vaccine, Governments were very much silent over the issue until when the virus struck and swallowed a huge population of West Africans that political and health authorities came to understand exactly what the virus is about.
When the disease first broke out in Guinea in March last year, The Sierra Leone government did not do much to put in place the necessary structures that would have forestalled the rapid spread of the disease in case it rears its head in the country. The then Minister of Health and Sanitation, Miatta Kargbo, was on air to assure sierra Leoneans that the disease was still in Guinea and that Sierra Leone was safe from the virus. This message was a good one provided it was backed up with the setting up of the appropriate mechanisms that could ward off the virus. At that time, no visible mechanism existed and when the virus entered the country, the havoc was clear. Consequently, the country has lost very fine doctors and nurses who were working very hard to augment its fragile health system.
The current Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah, was the Deputy Minister-1 when the Ebola virus entered the country. During a press briefing that was held at the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists headquarters at Campbell street in Freetownn in August last year, he made a posthumous presentation of a research undertaken by the country`s lead virologists, Dr Sheik Umar Khan, who succumbed to the epidemic in its early stage.
Dr Khan was head of the Lassa Fever unit at the Kenema Government Hospital, which was the center of the country`s fight against Ebola until it was revamped. He did the research along with four of her local colleagues about haemorrhagic fevers, including the Ebola virus. Even though the research was an international initiative, the fact that the government was aware of Ebola`s threat and didn’t do much to prevent it reminds us of the less emphasis West African governments placed on research, especially medical research.
During the presentation, Dr Fofanah highlighted some reasons for the delayed proclamation of a state of public emergency in the country, as well as, sealing off the Sierra Leone border with Guinea. He told journalists that such measures had direct impact on fundamental human rights and that trade within the Mano River Basin would be seriously hampered. This geo-political consideration by the government as revealed by Dr Fofanah was another key factor that undermined the Ebola fight.
Even Kailahun in the eastern region of Sierra Leone where the first Ebola case was recorded in the country was sealed off very late. At the time, internal migration, especially rural-urban, had taken place and the disease had been spreading. Even local and international non-governmental organisations could not come out with a coherent and coordinated response to the Ebola fight. Everything was just haphazardly done, yet huge number of people was succumbing to the virus and this created panic all over the country.
The first message from the Ministry of Health was that the virus had no cure and that whoever became infected with it would surely die. This message became a big stumbling block in the Ebola fight as the people were questioning the rationale of going to hospitals to seek medical treatment for a disease that had no cure. This resulted into a situation in which the people secretly hid and cared for the sick in their houses, burying corpses without authorization from government and the disease continued to spread.
It got out of control when it entered the highly congested capital city, Freetown. The situation forced President Ernest Bai Koroma to make an appeal to the international community for support.
In response expatriate medical doctors started flooding in to contain the spread of the virus.
We have seen the American, British and Chinese doctors setting up massive missions to counter the flow. It has worked, even if still now the disease remains a major threat, with a few persistent cases up now and then. Medicins Sans Frontier, otherwise known as ‘Doctors without Borders’, has been particularly notable among chairites and aid agencies in the fight.
The Ebola virus has therefore taught a strong lesson to the people of Sierra Leone and the hope is that government would learn from this and take reasonable measures to boost the medical sector and put it as number one priority among all government organs so that the tragic situation could be prevented in the feature.
To demonstrating that it has learnt from the epidemic, government must ensure that the post Ebola Recovery plan focuses on the following:
Medical research centres must be established in all district headquarter towns to ensure that quality medical research is conducted. This would enable medical experts to predict future outbreaks and knowledge generated from these researches would be crucial to the prevention of communicable diseases.
The government must ensure that the old system of sanitary inspectors moving from house to house to conduct inspections must be reinstated as this has the potential to prevent the future outbreaks of diseases that cost the country too much.
Personal protective gears must be provided in all health facilities for the safety of health staff and patients.
Salaries and allowances of medical doctors must be increased to an appreciable level to motivate them to do the work since the job is associated with high risks.
Also, the nurses and medical doctors must be thoroughly trained to tackle diseases of this nature, as well as to avoid the syndrome of volunteerism as we know it in Sierra Leone where people without medical knowledge serve in government hospitals.
Above all, government must harness all national resources to improve tremendously the budgetary allocation to the health sector.
Today, the country has recorded 3,900 deaths as a result of the Ebola outbreak. This must be avoided in the future.
This article was done in collaboration with Ouestaf with the support of Osiwa.
(C) Politico 05/08/15
