Sierra Leone temporary lockdown because of Ebola Outbreak

Sierra Leone will impose a four-day, countrywide "lockdown" starting Sept. 18, an escalation of efforts to halt the spread of Ebola across the West African country, a senior official in the president's office said on Friday.

The move underscores the radical steps West African nations are being pushed to take, over six months into an outbreak that is the worst on record and shows no sign of easing having already killed over 2,100 people since March.

Citizens will not be allowed to leave their homes between Sept. 18-21 in a bid to prevent the disease from spreading further and allow health workers to identify cases in the early stages of the illness, said Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a presidential adviser on the country's Ebola task force.

"The aggressive approach is necessary to deal with the spread of Ebola once and for all," he told Reuters. As of Friday, Sierra Leone has recorded 491 of the total of suspected, probable and confirmed Ebola deaths, according to U.N. figures.

Kargbo said 21,000 people would be recruited to enforce the lockdown. Thousands of police and soldiers have already been deployed to enforce the quarantining of towns in Sierra Leone's worst-hit regions near the border with Guinea.

Organizations from across the world are rushing funds and equipment to West Africa, but Ebola is spreading faster than ever and experts say the lack of trained staff in weak health systems is a major obstacle to the response.

Five things to know about and How Ebola spreads

Three West Africa nations are struggling to control an outbreak of Ebola. The virus was first discovered nearly four decades ago in Congo in a village near the Ebola River. Since then there have been sporadic outbreaks.

Five things to know about Ebola and how it is spread:

1. WEST AFRICA OUTBREAK NOW LARGEST IN HISTORY. The current outbreak in the neighbouring countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has sickened more than 1,300 people and killed more than 700 since March. The outbreak is unusual for West Africa as the disease is typically found in the centre and east of the continent.

2. SOME PEOPLE HAVE SURVIVED EBOLA. While the fatality rate for Ebola can be as high as 90 per cent, health officials in the three countries say people have recovered from the virus and the current death rate is about 60 per cent. Those who fared best sought immediate medical attention and got supportive care to prevent dehydration even though there is no specific treatment for Ebola itself.

3. EBOLA CAN LOOK LIKE OTHER DISEASES. The early symptoms of an Ebola infection include fever, headache, muscle aches and sore throat. It can be difficult to distinguish between Ebola and malaria, typhoid fever or cholera. Only in later stages do people with Ebola begin bleeding both internally and externally, often through the nose and ears.

4. EBOLA IS ONLY SPREAD THROUGH CLOSE CONTACT. The Ebola virus is not airborne, so people would have to come into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. These include blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — making transmission through casual contact in a public setting unlikely.

5. FEAR AND MISINFORMATION. In the three countries, health workers and clinics have come under attack from panicked residents who mistakenly blame foreign doctors and nurses for bringing the virus to remote communities. Family members also have removed sick Ebola patients from hospitals. Government officials have stepped up efforts to isolate patients, educate the public, check travellers and tighten borders to prevent the disease's spread.

Ebola outbreak in stills terror in West African families

Liberian health workers carry the body of an ebola victim in Foya. The World Health Organization says nearly 730 people have died there and in neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone since February.Even the word was chilling: Ebola. The virus stole into the girl's house in her small eastern Guinea town, invisible as death, and swiftly killed her grandmother and great-aunt. There were dark rumors everywhere that Ebola was witchcraft.Soon her mother and aunt fell sick too. Health workers with Doctors … read more at candidshare.com