NERC Concludes Fact Finding Visit to Ebola Hot Spots in Port Loko By Hassan Bruz Northern Bureau Chief I know you are very much aware of the fact that Port Loko is one of the leading Districts in terms of Ebola related cases in Sierra Leone. In the Northern District of Port Loko, the virus has not only claimed a huge number of lives, but has continued to spread in new and virgin grounds. As you might have deduced in my previous posts, most of the descendants of this District have been dispirited by the continuous spread of the virus. The Politicians and other well meaning groups have conducted lots and lots of sensitisation campaigns to help people know that Ebola is not only a real killer disease, but that it is already in the country with the potential to ravage the entire Nation. The President himself has made repeated visits to every other District to drum for concerted support in the fight against the dreadful disease. The Paramount Chiefs and other Traditional Leaders have long been mandated by the Local Government to establish Bye Laws with a view to enhance compliance and minimise the spread. The central Government has provided almost all the required Logistics with support from the International Community to fight and eradicate the virus. In spite of all these efforts, Ebola has continued to ravage the District at will and has now become a major National embarrassment. In its desperation for a workable solution, the President Ernest Bai Koroma led Government is therefore left with the only alternative of getting to the crux of why Port Loko has continued to score such high figures of Ebola cases. It is as a result of this that a high powered delegation recently made a one day fact finding visit to the District. The Team which comprised of representatives from W H O, UNICEF, DFID AND NERC, made its first stop at the Command and Control Centre in Port Loko where it was received by the DERC Coordinator –Hon. Raymond Kabia on behalf of the Port Loko District Task Force on Ebola. It was informed of the efforts so far done by the various Stakeholders of the District to combat the spread of the virus including the establishment of Holding and Treatment Centres in various parts of the District. But as observed by the Team members themselves, all those efforts have not yielded the desired results. Members therefore asked to be directed to the Ebola Hot Spot Areas in the District to enable them get first hand pieces of information on the reasons for what appeared to be a fluctuating Ebola figures in the District. Apart from Mayaya, Masoila and Tagrin in the Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom, Thigboni in the Lokomasama Chiefdom were singled out as the most recent Ebola hot spot in the Port Loko District. It would worth your while to know that Thigboni was the area that gave the latest embarrassing figures in the District. It was therefore resolved that the Team proceeds to Thigboni to know what else could be done to scale down the trend of infection. At Baillor which is the Section Headquarter Town, a special meeting was summoned and chaired by the newly transferred Senior District Officer – Abdul Karim Kamara. PC Bai Marrow Angbarthor is the Paramount Chief of Lokomasama Chiefdom and was the first to take the podium. He informed the Team in his welcome address that, Lokomasama is a highly populated Chiefdom with a total of 14 Sections and over 87,000 Inhabitants. He said the key occupation his people is fishing –an occupation that qualifies Lokomasama to be one of the main food baskets in the country. He said the Ebola virus in his Chiefdom has a history of travel as it was brought in by a Stranger and propagated by Herbalist. The Paramount Chief said a total of 14 People were infected and subsequently removed from the Community to a Holding Centre. He said 7 people out of that figure turn out negative while 2 eventually lost their lives including the mother of a 2 month old baby. As buttressed by one of his sub Chiefs, the incident occurred at Thigboni village which is just a walking distance from where the meeting was held. He said the virus was imported by a lady that went to attend a funeral ceremony in the nearby village where she got infected with the virus. She returned to her village of origin and subjected herself to the native treatment of a Herbalist who had already built a hut in the bush to treat Ebola infected and other categories of sick persons. He said those who could not cope and eventually lost their lives in the process of native treatment were secretly buried. Things came to light upon the intervention of the Burial Team and the establishment of Check Points, especially when people started dying in large numbers. The Herbalist himself and a small boy fell sick and were eventually caught while about to be transported elsewhere in a wheelbarrow. The Team was further informed that some People including a Pupil Teacher and a mad man were still on the run. Madam Yvonne was one of the leaders of the Team to Port Loko and acted as its Spokesperson. She spoke on the immense setback the Ebola Virus has caused this Nation not only in terms of the invaluable and precious lives it has claimed, but also the manner it has put on hold to almost every bit of the development agenda of the Government of President Ernest Bai Koroma. She made a special reference to the Farming and Schooling activities that have been disrupted for far too long. Madam Yvonne used the opportunity to also brief the gathering on some of the efforts of Government in making sure that the mode of transmission was stopped and have the virus eradicated from the entire Nation. She cited the number of Surveillance and Contact Tracers that have since been recruited, the series of Holding and Treatment Centres so far established together with the number of Ambulances and other Logistics that were now available in the Port Loko District. The Spokeswoman said the facilities in the District were enough for the people to have been in a proper position to stop the spread and win the Ebola fight in the District. She made it abundantly clear that Ebola is far beyond the capability of Herbalists to handle as in the case of other forms of Native treatments. She said the fight against Ebola is a general concern and requires concerted efforts. She said the Ebola fight can easily be won when every individual is prepared to adhere to the dos and don’ts as prescribed by the Medics, together with compliance to the Bye Laws on Ebola. Brigadier General Taluva is the Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer of the National Ebola Response Centre and Leader of the Delegation. He said the purpose of the visit was for them to know what is actually required by the People of Port Loko to enable them end the fight against Ebola. The head of Delegation wondered why there were still so many Ebola cases from Port Loko in spite of all the facilities that have been made available in the District. He said the National Ebola Response Centre is therefore tempted to believe that arrogance, denial, indiscriminate movement of people, lack of or improper information on the realities of this Killer Disease could be some or one of the key reasons for the ugly developments in the District. He said there was need for them to know because the Government will no longer allow any individual, group, or a District to continue derailing the aspiration of the Government, especially when President Koroma is so determined to forge ahead with the agenda for Prosperity. According to what was deduced from the gathering, Denial and Limited Knowledge on the potentials of the Virus were the key reasons for the prevailing situation in the District. Some said they were very much aware of the fact that Ebola is real, but that they did not believe that the mere touching of a sick person, the washing and burial of corpses can be as disastrous as the virus has turned out to be. You now have the opportunity to see some of the Photos obtained at the meeting in Baillor.....
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:59:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015