Ebola outbreak in Koinadugu, Sierra Leone, prompts call for help from chief

November 2014 – AFRICA - The leader of a remote chiefdom in Sierra Leone has called for urgent help to contain Ebola, which is causing fear and panic in his community. The fresh outbreak of Ebola in Koinadugu, a district previously unaffected by the virus, has affected more than 60 people in a small chiefdom close to Guinea, the Red Cross has said. The head of Sierra Leone’s Red Cross team, John Mara, told the Guardian that at least 25 people had died and 38 people were believed to be infected after lab results proved positive for 15 more patients. Two of those buried had died on Tuesday, including a seven-year-old girl. Koinadugu had prided itself on being the only district in Sierra Leone to have been Ebola-free after local chiefs imposed a quarantine, barring travel and creating a system of official distribution vans and trucks to help farmers and traders get their product to neighboring markets. However, after two unexplained deaths in October were investigated, it emerged that Ebola had reached the chiefdom of Nenei and its three villages of Fankuya, Sumbaria and Kumala. The Red Cross met chief Foday Jalloh, the paramount or head chief of Nenei, to get his permission to enter the region to help the community, where traditional burial practices and medical therapies may have contributed to the spread of the virus. Jalloh said: “Please help us, we need your help and support.”

Mara, who is from the area, said: “We discovered there had been 25 deaths already, some of them unexplained. Prior to this, the district went six months without Ebola. On 15 October there were two cases of unidentified deaths. The situation is not really good because we have just got the results that show there are 15 new cases, on top of 23 we already knew about.” A Red Cross spokesman said it sent two burial teams to help local volunteers. However, the rugged terrain is making access difficult. “It’s about five hours’ drive to the district Kabala and then another five hours to the Nenie chiefdom. Our Toyota Land Cruiser got stuck twice yesterday on creeks and streams. Sometimes the bridge is just two logs for the right-hand and left-hand-side wheels,” he said. He said there was evidence the infection rate had dropped significantly in Kailahun, where the burial teams had come from. It was at the centre of the first outbreak in June and the site of the first field hospital erected by Médecins sans Frontières. “There were about 400 new cases a week in the peak in August. It has come down to five or 10 in the last few days,” said the spokesman. An estimated 50-70% of infections emanate from funerals, when highly contagious corpses have been washed in a traditional manner by friends and family. The Red Cross said education and community training about the dangers of traditional burial practices in Kailahun and Kenema, a nearby commercial hub, appeared to be paying off. “But we need to have zero new cases for 21 days before we can say it is clear of Ebola and all it takes is one case for it to start again,” said the spokesman. –Guardian