Identifying the Weak Links in the Fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone By Atomic Pen • Though the Government has done extremely well in raising the level of awareness about the scourge of the deadly Ebola epidemic disease that is killing our people in large numbers everyday, yet the disease has continued to infect more and more people on daily basis. • It is therefore important for the Government and its partners to go back to the drawing board to time to examine the weak links in the fight against the disease. Fighting the disease requires basic skills, knowledge, trained personnel, financial resources and equipment and I see these combined factors in action here in Congo where the disease is being successfully contained as compared to Sierra Leone. • As a matter of fact, one does not need to hold a Bachelor’s degree in Virology to be able to protect oneself from being infected by the disease. The disease can be brought under control within a period of six months depending on the attitude of the people and the level of commitment of the Government. • Based on my knowledge on how the Congolese have always managed their outbreaks here, I am able to identify the following missing links in the fight against the disease back home: 1) The people of Sierra Leone are still reluctant to adhere to the strict procedures for self prevention. The people prefer to take risk in honoring dead victims as priority over self protection. 2) The people are refusing to declare their status when they contract the disease for fear of stigmatization. Relatives prefer to keep infected persons at home until they die and are buried clandestinely. 3) Medical personnel have shown neither minimum knowledge nor any skills in dealing with the disease. In a country plagued by the disease, even healthy looking people are treated as potential carriers and people take all the necessary precautionary measures in dealing with one another. Sick people who report for treatment like here in Congo are fist screened for Ebola before they are handed over to regular medical personnel when proven negative. This is not happening in Sierra Leone. Ill persons are being diagnosed and treated with complete disregard for the EVD. This explains why the disease is claiming the lives of so many medical personnel in the country. 4) There are no sentiments in dealing with Ebola. This is not the case in Sierra Leone. Relatives refuse to isolate sick persons. They prefer to keep infected persons at home until the situation reaches the last stage of disgrace which involves vomiting of blood and frequent stool. Our people think by handling the sick with total disregard for personal safety and protection is the only way to show concern and affection for the infected relative. 5) The collapse of the health care system and the fear of going to hospitals which are perceived by the population as potential areas of contamination or the fear of being associated with the disease by being seen in health centres, there is an increase in the demand for the services of medical personnel in private homes. Though such services have been banned by the Government, medical personnel are still treating sick persons clandestinely in the homes in order to make extra money. They take no minimum preventive measures and get infected in the process. 6) The Government has shown no capacity in responding to alerts in good time. Dead bodies take several days in homes or holding centres before they are collected by the burial teams. The dead bodies are also infecting inmates in many homes. On many instances, communities and families have had cause to drop dead bodies in mains streets, highways or public buildings as the only way to accelerate the intervention of the burial teams. 7) The collection of dead bodies has been hampered by bribery and corruption. Bereaved families are now obliged to pay the burial teams to get them into action. Poor families that cannot afford such bribes are faced with the risk of burying their dead with no precautionary measures. 8) Though the Government has received hundreds of millions of dollars from donors both locally and internationally, it is still waiting for donations to buy basic health gears and hospital beds. There are currently about 700 hospital beds and the Government needs about 1000 more beds to be able to cater for the infected caseload. The Government has no business in begging when the has in its possession hundreds of millions of dollars donated for the purpose of buying basic health gears including hospital beds and the construction of more emergency holding centres. The payment of allowances to health workers has met so many hiccups though there is enough money for this. It was a big shame to hear the rejected proposal by the Government to adopt a new measure whereby patients are treated by their families at home with protective health gears to be supplied to them. The available funds are more than enough to build more holding centres, buy more protective gears and to pay the promised weekly allowances. 9) There is a serious problem of leadership in managing and supervising the burial teams. They have imposed the payment of bribes as pre-conditions for the collecting of corpses. This is a major weakness in the fight against the disease. The person in charge of the burial team is a disgrace to the people of Sierra Leone and should be sacked immediately. There have even scandals of drivers caught on camera stealing fuel in broad daylight. 10) There has been a lot of recklessness and corruption scandals in handling the disease but the Government does not seem to be capable of doing something to send warning signals about to all those trying to undermine the fact against the disease. Nothing has been done to bring those responsible for the purchase of eight rotten ambulances bought as new vehicles. This is so disheartening and sickening! It is likely to end up as another “boff case” as long as the rogues don’t eat alone. 11) As long as there is plenty money donated for the purpose of fighting the disease, the Government should use these funds for the intended purpose and should only ask for more when they are exhausted. The nurses are still facing the problems of lack of basic health gears. They have gone on strikes a couple of times for nonpayment of their weekly allowances. We are still facing shortage of beds and holding centres when the Ebola account has hundreds of millions of dollars. We are still facing problems of food for quarantined homes. 12) Security personnel deployed to enforce the law are always begging for food and money. The Government cannot afford to charter planes to evacuate health workers though the Germans have offered to provide free treatment for infected health personnel. The case of Dr. Olivet Buck is a typical example in which the Government kept begging WHO to finance the doctor’s evacuation until she passed away. Something is fundamentally wrong in the country and I believe it goes beyond corruption and misanthropism. At the time of Dr. Buck’s death, the Government had over USD 200 million! The Government needed less than USD 200,000 to hire a medical plan for the evacuation exercise. • To be honest, Congo has all lots of problems but their attitude towards fighting the disease is one of patriotism, professionalism and commitment by the local authorities at all levels. These are the missing links in the fight against the disease back home in Sierra Leone. It is not about using a magic wand! • I am deeply disturbed and I think I will have no alternative but to go underground and stop talking about the disease until the situation gets under control. I am really really disturbed. I cannot believe that our people can still be heartless enough to bring in corruption that continues to thwart the efforts to save our people from disgrace and early deaths. • Some of us face insults and snubs because we stand for the truth and uprightness. We are seen as enemies of the Government because we put country first before primitive tribal and partisan politics. I am giving up. Bye brothers and sisters. I am going underground out of shame.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:17:02 +0000
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