Ebola: Lagos rejects Sierra Leone AFCON tie

Lagos State Government has withdrew from the hosting of  an African Nations Cup qualifier between Sierra Leone and African champions Cote d’Ivoire slated for Sunday because of concerns over the Ebola scourge.

Akinwunmi Ambode

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) agreed to stage the match after the Sierra Leoneans were banned from hosting international matches because of Ebola, africanFootball.com reports.

The NFF accordingly received a clearance from the ministry of health for the game to be played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

“Lagos government is not comfortable for the match to be played in Lagos. The government doesn’t want to take risks. The officials argued that they have lost a lot of money and top personalities on account of the Ebola scourge,” africanFootball.com quoted a Lagos-based sports editor as saying on the matter.

“So, Lagos will not stage the match between Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire.”

There are now strong indications the match will now be played in Port Harcourt after the NFF opened discussions with the Rivers State Government.

“They have opened talks with the Rivers State Government for the match to now be played in Port Harcourt,” an official said.

Ebola: Lagos rejects Sierra Leone AFCON tie

Sierra Leone VP seeks asylum at US embassy

Sierra Leone’s vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, has requested asylum at the US embassy in Freetown after soldiers surrounded his home, following his expulsion from the ruling All People’s Congress party this month.

Sumana was expelled from President Ernest Bai Koroma’s APC party after an investigation accused him of creating his own rival political movement, leaving doubt over whether he could continue as vice president.

“I have fled my house and am with my wife in a place I cannot disclose, waiting to hear from the US ambassador, whom I have asked for asylum,” Sam-Sumana told the Reuters news agency on Saturday.

A source at the US embassy, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters that Sam-Sumana had entered the building. but it was not immediately possible to confirm that officially.

Government spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay, who said he was travelling with Bai Koroma in northern Sierra Leone, declined to comment.

In late February, Sam-Sumana said that he was placing himself in a 21-day quarantine after one of his bodyguards died of Ebola amid a surge in new infections in the West African country.

Sierra Leone VP seeks asylum at US embassy

Sierra Leone"s Vice President In Quarantine For Ebola

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone’s vice president has put himself in quarantine following the death from Ebola of one of his security guards.

Zhao Yanbo, Ernest Bai Koroma, Samuel Sam-Sumana

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana is set to become acting president later Sunday when President Ernest Bai Koroma leaves Sierra Leone to attend a European Union conference on Ebola in Belgium. Sam-Sumana will carry out his presidential duties from his home.

He is the highest ranking African official to be in quarantine in this Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which is fast approaching a death toll of 10,000. The news highlights the rise of new cases in Sierra Leone, which has experienced a setback in curbing the spread of Ebola.

Sam-Sumana voluntarily decided to quarantine himself for 21 days following the death from Ebola last Tuesday of one of his security personnel.

“This virus has affected thousands of our people and has nearly brought our country to its knees,” said Sam-Sumana in a statement on Sunday. “We all have a collective responsibility to break the chains of transmission by isolating the sick and reporting all known contacts, by not touching the dead … We cannot be complacent. We must work together as a nation to end Ebola now.”

Sam-Sumana’s dramatic quarantine comes as President Ernest Bai Koroma reinstated restrictions on public movement on Saturday, in response the rise in new cases.

Sierra Leone recorded 18 new cases of Ebola in the week ending Saturday, up from 16 new cases last week. This breaks the trend of declining cases in the country.

Many of the new clusters are related to the capital’s fishing industry. In one case a fisherman died at sea in early February and the boat returned his body to shore in Freetown, the capital. Some of the fishermen on the boat then returned to their homes in the shantytown surrounding the fishing wharf, causing new infections.

President Koroma had recently lifted travel restrictions in order to stimulate economic activity, a relaxation criticized as too early by some officials. In response to the rise in new cases, Koroma on Saturday re-imposed restrictions including a nighttime ban on all boats launching from shore and on commercial vehicles off-loading goods in western market areas. Naval vessels will enforce the measures by patrolling the wharves and coastline.

In addition there will be restrictions on ferries and health checkpoints by the police will be strengthened. Public transportation restrictions will be reinstated which limit the numbers of passengers in taxis to two in cars and four at the back of large taxi vans to reduce physical contact between passengers.

The death toll for the current Ebola outbreak has risen to more than 9,600 from more than 23,800 infections mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to World Health Organization figures released Friday.

Liberia, which has had the highest number of deaths, has succeeded in bringing its number of confirmed cases to just a handful and has reopened schools.

Ebola is currently spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. In addition to battling Ebola, Sierra Leone’s government last week launched an investigation after an audit showed that nearly one-third of the money it received to fight Ebola, about $5.7 million, was used without necessary receipts.

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Sierra Leone"s Vice President In Quarantine For Ebola

Ebola-hit UK nurse in critical condition

A British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was hospitalised in London this week is now in a “critical” condition, the hospital said Saturday.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

“The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is sorry to announce that the condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical,” it said.

On Wednesday, doctors had said the nurse was sitting up in bed, reading and talking to staff from inside her isolation tent in the hospital.

They said she had agreed to have blood plasma treatment and take an experimental anti-viral drug, which was unnamed but was not ZMapp, the drug used to successfully treat fellow British volunteer nurse William Pooley.

Dr Michael Jacobs, infectious diseases consultant at the Royal Free London, had warned at the time that “Ebola runs a very variable course and the next few days are going to be very critical”.

Cafferkey, who works for Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS), had been volunteering at a British-built treatment centre in Sierra Leone when she contracted the deadly virus.

She was diagnosed in Glasgow on December 29 after flying back to the Scottish city from west Africa, and was transferred to the Royal Free London, which has the only isolation ward in Britain equipped for Ebola patients.

Cafferkey is the second person to be treated for Ebola in Britain after Pooley, who recovered and has since returned to Sierra Leone.

 

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Ebola-hit UK nurse in critical condition

Striking Ebola Burial Workers Dump Bodies In Front Of Hospital in Sierra Leone

Burial workers for an ebola clinic in Kenema Hospital, Sierra Leone, have dumped the corpses of Ebola victims at the hospital entrance to display their anger at unpaid ‘hazard pay’ allowances.

Burial Workers At King Tom Cemetery, Sierra Leone
Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

The workers, who are on strike, are said to have left two bodies at the hospital entrance and one by the hospital manager’s office.

Kenema is a major city in Sierra Leone and has recorded about ten percent of confirmed Ebola cases in the country.

Two weeks ago a number of Ebola health workers went on strike in the nearby city of Bo to protest unpaid allowances strike to protest unpaid allowances.

Despite signs of progress in reducing the rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia and Guinea, Sierra Leone continues to experience a surge in new infections with about 500 new cases in the last week alone.

The head of The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Anthony Banbury, has warned that health authorities are losing control of the crisis in certain rural areas which have little to no intervention resources.

“It’s clear where there are escalating cases rapidly accelerating the spread of the disease, and where we don’t have the response capability on the ground, and that’s definitely the case in some places, we’re not going make it.” Banbury said.

The 2014 Ebola crisis has killed over 5000 people mostly in West Africa, with over 15000 cases recorded to date.

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Striking Ebola Burial Workers Dump Bodies In Front Of Hospital in Sierra Leone

Ebola kills doctor in US

A doctor who spent time treating Ebola patients in West Africa died from the virus Monday. The death of Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, marks the second time Ebola has claimed a victim in the United States.

Dr. Martin Salia

Salia died at around 5 a.m. ET Monday, according to Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson.

A legal permanent resident of the United States, Salia was treating patients in West Africa when he contracted the virus.

Salia arrived Saturday at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The hospital tweeted Monday that he was “extremely critical” when his treatment began and “unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him.”

Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola, including kidney and respiratory failure, health officials said.

The first Ebola patient to die in the United States was Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Texas in September from that West African country that, like Sierra Leone and Guinea, has been hit the hardest by the Ebola epidemic.

Duncan, 42, died at a Dallas hospital. He initially went to the same facility’s emergency room after he began having symptoms, but he was misdiagnosed and sent home. Two days later, he was back in the hospital, where he tested positive for the virus and his treatment began.

It is rare for someone to die in the United States from Ebola because medical and monetary resources are extensive — much more so than in West Africa.

When Salia was in Sierra Leone, the team caring for him characterized him as critical ill, possibly sicker than patients treated successfully in the United States, according to Nebraska health officials.

Salia’s wife, a Maryland resident, pushed to get him evacuated from Sierra Leone, the U.S. State Department said. An air ambulance crew evaluated him in Freetown and determined he was well enough to travel.

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Ebola kills doctor in US

Five S’Leoneans infected with Ebola every hour - Report

A leading charity has warned that a rate of five new Ebola cases an hour in Sierra Leone means healthcare demands are far outstripping supply.

Save the Children said there were 765 new cases of Ebola reported in the West African state last week, while there are only 327 beds in the country.

Experts and politicians are set to meet in London to debate a global response to the crisis.

It is the world’s worst outbreak of the virus, killing 3,338 people so far.

There have been 7,178 confirmed cases, with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea suffering the most.

Save the Children says Ebola is spreading across Sierra Leone at a “terrifying rate”, with the number of new cases being recorded doubling every few weeks.

It said that even as health authorities got on top of the outbreak in one area, it spread to another.

The scale of the disease is also “massively unreported” according to the charity, because “untold numbers of children are dying anonymously at home or in the streets”.

“We’re in a race against time,” said Justin Forsyth, the organisation’s chief executive.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme he said that the figure for Sierra Leone could rise to 10 people every hour before the end of the month if urgent action was not taken.

Meanwhile the head of the UN’s mission to combat Ebola warned that the disease was spreading “very rapidly” and that a “massive international response” was required to deal with the crisis.

Anthony Banbury, who is in Liberia, said more needed to be done to educate remote communities about how to protect themselves from infection.

“Cases are doubling every 20 days,” he said. “The disease has now reached every county in Liberia.”

Earlier this month, Britain said it would build facilities for 700 new beds in Sierra Leone but the first of these will not be ready for weeks, and the rest may take months.

Safety trials for two experimental vaccines are under way in the UK and US, the WHO said on Wednesday, and will be expanded to 10 sites in Africa, Europe and North America in the coming weeks.

It said it expected to begin small-scale use of the experimental vaccines in West Africa early next year.

The Ebola Donors Conference in London on Thursday is being hosted by the UK and Sierra Leone governments. Its main agenda is to discuss what the global community can do to provide an effective international response to the epidemic.

It will be chaired by UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who said he hoped it would “raise even greater awareness of the disease and what is needed to contain it , encourage ambitious pledges and show our solidarity with Sierra Leone and the region.”

The President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, will be unable to attend as the British charter plane sent to the capital Freetown to collect him developed a technical fault. It is hoped he will join the conference by video-link.

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Five S’Leoneans infected with Ebola every hour - Report

Ebola burial team attacked in Sierra Leone

A team of health workers trying to bury Ebola victims has come under attack in Sierra Leone, as the country struggled through the second day of a nationwide curfew to help combat the virus.

Ebola

Police were called on Saturday to help the team in the village of Matainkay, 20km east of the capital Freetown. A witness told state television that the burial team initially had to abandon five bodies and flee.

A local police commander told the Reuters news agency that “some youths attempted to disrupt the burial”.

Since the curfew came into effect on Friday, most of Sierra Leone’s six million people have been confined to their homes. Only essential workers, such as health professionals and security forces, are exempt.

However critics say that the measures could cause people to go to extra lengths to conceal those infected.

The charity group Doctors Without Borders said it would be “extremely difficult for health workers to accurately identify cases through door-to-door screening”.

The group said that Sierra Leone did not have enough beds even if suspected cases were identified during the curfew.

Neighbouring Liberia had temporary placed quarantine measures and curfews last month, but lifted them after street protests.

The World Health Organisation says the virus has killed more than 560 people in Sierra Leone and more than 2,600 in West Africa since the outbreak began in December.

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Ebola burial team attacked in Sierra Leone

New law in Sierra Leone: Hiding ebola patients a crime

Sierra Leone’s parliament has passed a new law making it a criminal offence to shelter Ebola patients.

Those caught face up to two years in prison, the justice minister said. The measure still needs to be approved by the president.

Earlier, Ivory Coast closed its land borders to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on to its territory.

The World Health Organisation says the measures – taken by other countries as well – are counterproductive.

So far 1,427 people have died – more than in any other Ebola outbreak.

The number of cases now stands at 2,615. The speed and extent of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are “unprecedented”, according to the WHO.

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New law in Sierra Leone: Hiding ebola patients a crime

Liberia issues ‘shoot on sight’ order on Sierra Leonean immigrants

In a related development, Liberia’s armed forces have reportedly been given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighbouring Sierra Leone, which was closed to stem the spread of ebola. Soldiers stationed in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties, which border Sierra Leone, were to “shoot on sight” any person trying to cross the border, said deputy chief of staff, Colonel Eric Dennis.

The order came after border officials reported that people have continued to cross the porous border illegally. Previously, Grand Cape Mount county had 35 known “illegal entry points,” according to immigration commander Colonel Samuel Mulbah. Illegal crossings were a major health threat, said Mulbah, “because we don’t know the health status of those who cross at night.”

Like war: The Ebola crisis

Liberia closed its borders with Sierra Leone weeks ago in an attempt to contain the ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 1100 people in West Africa so far. Meanwhile, Liberian officials are continuing to search for 17 ebola patients who fled an attack on a quarantine centre in Monrovia, raising fears they could spread the deadly disease. “We have not yet found them,” Information Minister Lewis Brown said, yesterday, adding that those who looted the place took away mattresses and bedding that were soaked with fluids from the patients.”

On Saturday, youths wielding clubs and knives raided the medical facility set up in a high school in the densely-populated West Point, some shouting “there’s no ebola”, echoing wild rumours that the epidemic has been made up by the West to oppress Africans. Authorities are now considering sealing off the area, home to around 75,000 people, although some reports suggest the infected patients may have already fled West Point.

WHO urges detention of suspect patients

Meantime, the World Health Organization, WHO, yesterday, urged the authorities in countries affected by the ebola outbreak to screen people departing international airports, seaports and major border crossings and stop those with symptoms of the virus from leaving. “Affected countries are requested to conduct exit screening of all persons at international airports, seaports and major land crossings, for unexplained febrile illness consistent with potential Ebola infection. Any person with an illness consistent with Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation,” the UN health agency said.

Our meat has no Ebola – Oyo State Bushmeat Sellers Association

On the flip side, scores of bush meat sellers, yesterday, marched peacefully to Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s office at the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, complaining of low patronage due to the outbreak of ebola disease. The women under the aegis of Bushmeat Sellers Association lamented that since the announcement that the deadly disease could be caused by eating bush meat, their sales had suffered a lull.

Speaking on behalf of the association, Alhaja Risikat Odeyemi, Iyalode, Bushmeat Association, Oyo, said that it was strange that bush meat which had hitherto been taken as a special delicacy should now be seen as a poison. Her words: “Our meats do not have any Ebola virus. We don’t know why people should just be peddling rumour that would be injurious to other people. This is not good at all. They have spoilt our business without any good reason. What we heard is that the disease was contacted through the river. Why should they be so unfair?”

They said before the announcement, a grass cutter was being sold between N2,000 and N4,000 and the same thing goes for antelope and other animals. But, now they regretted that there are no sales again. “We normally stand by the roadside to invite prospective buyers. But, now when we call them to buy bush meats they always reply us saying, “Ebola”. It is the same meat we have been eating and nothing has happened to us”, Odeyemi said.

Their visit to the governor’s office, she added, was to appeal to him to help dispel the rumour that bush meat causes Ebola. At the time our correspondent left the governor’s office, the governor was yet to attend to them. Many of the bush meat sellers sat clumsily at the entrance of the gate because the security men at the gate did not allow them to move closer to the governor’s office.

US to deploy 100 medical personnel to West Africa

The United States Government has announced the deployment of 100 medical personnel to help in the fight against the Ebola Virus outbreak in some parts of West Africa. U.S. Ambassador to the African Union, AU, Mr Reuben Brigety stated this in Addis Ababa at an information-sharing session on Ebola at the AU Permanent Representatives Committee, PRC.

Brigety said the U.S will deploy 25 medical doctors and 75 nurses to the four countries affected by the virus, including Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. He, however, said the deployment to the ebola-affected countries was subject to AU approval, as the U.S government was ready to assist. The envoy advised African countries to also send doctors and medical personnel to provide the services needed to tackle the disease in the affected countries.

At the session, Japan announced that it had donated $1.5 million dollars to the World Health Organization fund toward fighting the virus.

Why we rejected Nanosilver — Chukwu

In Abuja, Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, explained, yesterday, that the Ebola drug, Nanosilver was rejected for failing to meet required standards. Chukwu who spoke while receiving the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, in audience, said the drug did not meet basic research requirements of the National Health Research Ethics Code.

In his remarks, the ambassador disclosed that the U.S experimental drug on ebola was not sufficient to be given to Nigeria and, therefore, urged the nation to focus on isolation, screening and prevention, adding, “You have all seen the headlines over the weekend, this is an issue that we have to keep working hard on, it may be with us for a while but there are some encouraging sign.

“Your government is doing a good job on contact tracing, I noticed when I flew back here on Thursday night into the country, and before I left the plane I filled the questionnaire. I was very impressed because I had to put in my seat number which is a very good idea, so that if you have to trace the guy who was seating next to me you will know where I am. I have been very impressed by this thing so I encourage the government of Nigeria to keep at it, which I know they will.”

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Liberia issues ‘shoot on sight’ order on Sierra Leonean immigrants

Ebola: Arik Air suspends flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone

We were under pressure to release victim – Hospital

By Sola Ogundipe, Olasunkanmi Akoni, Lawani Mikairu, Daniel Eteghe & Gabriel Olawale

Lagos—Arik Air yesterday said it had suspended flight operations to Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death last week, of a Liberian, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, of the dreaded Ebola disease, even as it advised that all inbound flights into Nigeria from any of the Ebola affected countries be immediately suspended by the Federal Government.

Ebola

Sawyer flew into Nigeria onboard Asky Airline to attend an ECOWAS conference in Calabar, Cross River State.

This came as First Consultants Medical Centre Ltd, Obalende, Lagos, the hospital where the first Ebola victim in Nigeria died, said it was under serious pressure to release the victim.

Confirming the suspension of the flights yesterday, Arik Air General Manager, Public Relations, Mr Ola Adebanji said “As a result of the first Ebola virus death officially confirmed in Lagos, and involving a Liberian national who flew on a foreign (non-Nigerian) based airline from Monrovia via Lome (Togo) into the city last week, Arik Air will be suspending operations into Monrovia (Liberia) and Freetown (Sierra Leone) effective July 28, 2014.”

“The suspension will be in force until further notice. This decision is a pre-cautionary measure aimed at safeguarding the precious lives of Nigerians. Arik Air is taking this important measure as a concerned corporate citizen bearing interest of Nigerians at heart.“

According to him, the airline acknowledged steps the Federal Government of Nigeria was currently taking to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, saying “however, we feel compelled to take the decision to immediately suspend services into the two Ebola affected countries due to our interest in the well being of Nigerians.”

He explained that at the early stages of the development across West Africa, the Gambian government took the proactive decision to stop airlines, including Arik Air, from bringing inbound passengers from Monrovia, Conakry, Guinea, and Freetown into Banjul.

Adebanji added “Hence, in line with the actions taken by the Gambian Government, we trust, and are confident, that the Federal Government of Nigeria shall take all steps necessary to control and curtail the spread of the virus. We humbly suggest that as a first step, all inbound flights into Nigeria, originating from any of the Ebola-affected countries, be immediately suspended.”

Meanwhile, First Consultants Medical Centre Ltd, Obalende, Lagos, the hospital where the first Ebola victim in Nigeria died, has spoken out on the circumstances surrounding the incident.

In a statement by the hospital’s Chief Consultant/ Medical Director, Dr B.N. Ohiaeri and the Senior Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist, Dr. A.S. Adadevoh, it said the hospital was under pressure to release the victim.

According to the statement, “He was fully conscious and gave his clinical history and told us he was a senior diplomat from Liberia. We refused to let him out of the hospital in spite of intense pressure as we were told he was a senior ECOWAS official who had an important role to play at the ECOWAS convention in Calabar. The initial test result from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital laboratory indicated a signal of possible Ebola Virus Disease, but required confirmation.

“We then took the further step of reaching out to senior officials in the office of the Secretary of Health of the United States of America, who promptly assisted us with contacts at the Centre for Disease Control and World Health Organisation regional laboratory centre in Senegal. Jointly working with the state, Federal agencies and international agencies, we were able to obtain confirmation of Ebola Virus Disease (Zaire strain). The gentleman subsequently died on Friday at 6.50am (25th July, 2014).”

Following the death of the patient, the duo said there was “orderly temporary shutdown of the hospital with immediate evacuation of in-house patients. This was followed by appropriate professional removal of the body and its incineration under WHO guidelines witnessed by all appropriate agencies,” noting that the reopening of the hospital would also be in accordance with WHO guidelines.

The statement added that in keeping with World Health Organisation guideline, the hospital had been shut down briefly for full decontamination.

Meanwhile, a cross section of Lagos residents has urged the state and federal governments to spread their dragnet nationwide to ensure that all the co- passengers aboard the Asky aircraft that brought the victim to Nigeria are quickly located and screened for the virus.

Speaking to Vanguard at the departure wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, a middle-aged man, who identified himself as Olukayode, said it was not good enough for the co-passengers to have been allowed to go away without ensuring their health had not been compromised.

Another passenger who pleaded anonymity said screening of people should have been adopted earlier to stop the spread of the disease.

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Ebola: Arik Air suspends flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone

Boko Haram must be checked before it poses threat to Africa - Sierra Leone President

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

The President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bi-Koromah has said yesterday that if the terrorist group, Boko Haram is not properly checked, poses a massive threat not only to Nigeria but Africa at large.

He therefore promised to support Nigeria in the fight to crush the Islamist sect.

President Bi-Koromah who visited President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja said that Nigeria played a significant role in restoring peace and order in Sierra Leone, therefore deserves the backing of his country when it (Nigeria) faces internal crisis.

His words: ”In moments like this, we believe we should come and express sympathy for the bombings that have been taking place in Nigeria and most recently the abduction of about 200 secondary school girls.

“We believe that this is not an issue for Nigeria alone. We must come in and identify ourselves with the problems that are ongoing here.

“We believe strongly that the position Nigeria is enjoying as the largest economy in Africa and the fact that one out of every four Africans is a Nigerian, issues like this happening to Nigeria are issues that will affect the whole of Africa.”

He said African  countries must rally round Nigeria to  “address  this menace that is occurring in Nigeria.”

Boko Haram must be checked before it poses threat to Africa - Sierra Leone President

Ebola outbreak spreads to Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has confirmed its first death from Ebola, with several more suspected to have succumbed to the deadly virus that swept across neighbouring Guinea earlier this year.

“I can categorically confirm that the Ebola sickness has materialised,” said health ministry official Amara Jambai on Monday.

“Preliminary information received from the field indicates that one laboratory-confirmed case and five community deaths have been reported from Koindu chiefdom,” the World Health Organisation said in a statement on its website.

Jambai initially said four cases of Ebola fever had been identified, but later clarified that while four people had died, only one person had so far been confirmed to have had the virus, the AFP news agency reported.

“Of the four deaths only one has been confirmed as dying from Ebola after two independent tests at the Kenema Laboratory Centre. The cause of death of the other three is still being investigated,” he said.

More patients

Jambai said 11 people with acute diarrhoea and vomiting had been admitted to the Koindu community health centre in a region bordering southern Guinea.

Four people had died and five were responding to treatment.

Ebola has killed more than 100 people in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia since March, and has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.

It is one of a handful of similar fevers that cause vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain, and in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable internal bleeding.

It can be transmitted by blood and other bodily fluids, as well as the handling of contaminated corpses or infected animals, known to be vectors of the disease.

The WHO has described the region’s first Ebola outbreak as one of the most challenging outbreaks it has faced.

Ebola outbreak spreads to Sierra Leone