A three-day
curfew is under way in Sierra Leone to let health workers find and
isolate cases of Ebola, in order to halt the spread of the disease.
Many people
have been reluctant to seek medical treatment for Ebola, fearing that
diagnosis might mean death as there is no proven cure.
A team of 30,000 people is going house-to-house to find those infected and distribute soap.
But critics say the lockdown will damage public trust in doctors.
Meanwhile in
neighbouring Guinea, the bodies of eight missing health workers and
journalists involved in the Ebola campaign have been found.
A government
spokesman said some of the bodies had been recovered from a septic tank
in the village of Wome. The team had been attacked by villagers on
Tuesday.
Guinea’s prime minister said an investigation was under way, and vowed to catch the perpetrators of the “heinous murders.”
Correspondents
say many villagers are suspicious of official attempts to combat the
disease and the incident illustrates the difficulties health workers
face.
Sierra Leone
is one of the countries worst hit by West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, with
more than 550 victims among the 2,600 deaths so far recorded.
In the capital, Freetown, normally bustling streets were quiet, with police guarding roadblocks.
During the curfew, 30,000 volunteers will look for people infected with Ebola, or bodies, which are especially contagious.
They will hand out bars of soap and information on preventing infection.
Officials say the teams will not enter people’s homes but will call emergency services to deal with patients or bodies.
Volunteers will mark each house with a sticker after they have visited it, reports say.
On Thursday, President Ernest Bai Koroma said: “Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.”
He urged citizens to avoid touching each other, visiting the sick or avoid attending funerals.
Freetown
resident Christiana Thomas told the BBC: “People are afraid of going to
the hospital because everyone who goes there is tested for Ebola.”
Another
resident in Kenema, in the east of the country, told the BBC families
were struggling because the price of food had gone up.
In the hours
leading up to Sierra Leone’s lockdown, there was traffic gridlock in
Freetown as people stocked up on food and essentials.
Cities and
towns across the country were quiet without the usual early morning
Muslim call to prayer and the cacophony of vehicles and motorbikes that
people wake up to here.
Thousands of
volunteers and health workers have assembled at designated centres
across Sierra Leone and started moving into homes.
But they had to wait for hours before their kit – soaps and flyers – could reach them.
MP Claude
Kamanda, who represents the town of Waterloo near Freetown, told local
media that all the health centres there were closed, hours after the
health workers and volunteers were meant to assemble for deployment to
homes.
He complained that the delays were not helping the campaign.
The UN
Security Council on Thursday declared the outbreak a “threat to
international peace” and called on states to provide more resources to
combat it.
Meanwhile,
the US military has started work in the Liberian capital Monrovia to
establish an air bridge – a link by air transport – to take health
workers and supplies to affected countries
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