Sierra Leone orders three-day lockdown against Ebola

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma ordered the country's entire population Saturday to stay in their homes for three days in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly Ebola epidemic.

"All Sierra Leoneans must stay at home for three days," he announced, expanding a previous order for a lockdown in the capital Freetown and northern areas of the country nationwide.

"I have made my personal commitment to do whatever it takes to get to zero Ebola infections and I call on every Sierra Leonean in every community to pull together," he added.

People will be ordered to stay home from 0600 GMT March 27 to 1800 GMT March 29, with "no trading activities across the country".

Authorities in the Muslim-majority state will lift the lockdown for part of the day to allow church services on Palm Sunday.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- which have been the centres of the outbreak which has killed more than 10,000 people -- have set a goal of cutting off the  disease's spread by April 16.

"The economic development of our country and the lives of our people continue to be threatened by the ongoing presence of Ebola in Sierra Leone. The future of our country and the aspirations of our children are at stake," the president said.

One of the deadliest viruses known to man, Ebola is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of the recently deceased or an infected person showing symptoms, such as fever or vomiting.

The worst-ever outbreak of the virus has claimed almost 3,700 lives in Sierra Leone, one of three impoverished west African nations that have seen their economies and healthcare systems wrecked  by the crisis.

source: interaksyon.com

Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Hunger Games’ stars team up in Ebola video

LOS ANGELES | Jennifer Lawrence says she’d be fine if she got Ebola, in a video that encourages Americans to focus more on West Africans far more likely to die from the dreaded virus.

The Oscar-winning actress teamed up with fellow stars from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1″ for the nearly two-minute online public service announcement from the Ebola Survival Fund.

The video opens with a montage of clips from breathless US television news coverage of the tiny handful of Ebola cases so far in the United States.

It then points out that none of the eight “American patients” treated for Ebola in US hospitals have died — while in some parts of West Africa only two out of every 10 cases survived.

“A lot of them didn’t make it,” says Lawrence, to which her “Hunger Games” co-star Josh Hutcherson replies: “They didn’t have a lot to begin with.”

“In Liberia, they had 50 doctors for 4.4 million people,” Hutcherson said, before telling Lawrence: “I know what would happen if you got Ebola.”

“I’d be fine,” she solemnly replied.

Mahershala Ali, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore and Jeffrey Wright also appear in the video.

But the core message came from Harvard medical professor and Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, well-known for his work in developing health care in poor countries.

Ebola patients in West Africa, he said, urgently need IV fluids, electrolytes, food and “many more well-trained West African medical professionals.”

“With high-quality supportive care, the great majority of people in West Africa will survive Ebola,” Farmer added.

Two Ebola fatalities within the United States have been reported, but neither were native-born Americans.

Last month, another posse of Hollywood stars including Ben Affleck, Bono, Vincent Cassel, Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, came together for an Ebola video sponsored by the ONE Campaign.

Watch the video here:

source: interaksyon.com

Sierra Leone declares 5-day Ebola lockdown in north

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Sierra Leone's government has declared a five-day lockdown in the country's north to step up efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic, while making an exception for Christmas.

"Muslims and Christians are not allowed to hold services in mosques and churches throughout the lockdown except for Christians on Christmas Day (Thursday)," Alie Kamara, resident minister for the Northern Region, told AFP.

The lockdown announced Wednesday is designed "to intensify the containment of the Ebola virus," he said, adding: "We are working to break the chain of transmission."

Deputy communication minister Theo Nicol said "the lockdown for five days ... is meant for us to get an accurate picture of the situation," adding: "Other districts will carry on with their own individual lockdown after this if they deemed it necessary."

Ebola has killed more than 7,500 people, almost all of them in west Africa.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the three nations worst-hit by the epidemic, and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections.

Kamara said shops and markets would be closed throughout the period, and "no unauthorized vehicles or motorcycle taxis" would be allowed to circulate "except those officially assigned to Ebola-related assignments."

Among "key objectives" is to allow health workers to identify patients, Kamara said.

Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency on July 31 after the Ebola outbreak and imposed restrictions on the movement of people.

As of Wednesday six of the country's 14 departments have these restrictions in place.

On December 12, the government announced a restriction on large Christmas and New Year gatherings.

Several residents in the country's north told AFP by telephone that locals had largely been conforming to the new strictures.

'Bleak Christmas'

"The streets are deserted and people are staying indoors or sitting in their backyards," said Felix Koroma, in Makeni, in the district of Bombali.

"Although the district is predominantly Muslim, it is traditional for Muslims to join with Christians to celebrate Christmas but from what I can deduce, it’s going to be a bleak occasion," he added.

Sarah Tucker, in Port Loko district said the only activity she could see was "medics moving from house-to-house" looking to remove the sick from their homes.

But some residents said they had not been given adequate warning to stockpile supplies.

"The notice given was too short and it was difficult for us to keep food in the house," a resident of Magburaka, in Tonkolili, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.

"The lockdown is good but we are worried over what to eat until it ends."

The lockdown came after it was announced that a fourth member of the UN mission in neighboring Liberia had been hospitalized after testing positive for the virus.

The UN employee tested positive on Tuesday and was immediately transferred to an Ebola treatment unit, Karin Landgren, the special representative of UN chief Ban Ki-moon, said.

"UNMIL is taking all necessary measures to mitigate any possible further transmission -- both within the mission and beyond," Landgren said, referring to the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

A UN statement said its mission had stepped up surveillance "to ensure that all people who came into contact with the staff member while symptomatic are assessed and quarantined."

Liberia tops the number of Ebola deaths in the world with 3,376 fatalities but has seen a clear decrease of new transmissions in the past month.

source: interaksyon.com

US allows temporary protected status for people coming from Ebola-hit nations

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security will grant temporary protected status to people from the three West African countries most affected by Ebola who are currently residing in the United States, department officials said on Thursday.

People from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone arriving in the United States as of Thursday may apply for protection from deportation, as well as for work permits, for 18 months, said a Department of Homeland Security official.

After 18 months, the Secretary of Homeland Security will assess whether the protection should be extended, based on the level of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The move is a response to the Ebola epidemic, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives, mostly in the three West African countries.

In order to prevent a mass migration from West Africa to the United States, nationals from these countries who arrive after Thursday will not be eligible for protected status.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services officials estimate that 8,000 people will be eligible to apply.

"The Ebola response in the United States has been front and center in the United States government at high levels," said a Department of Homeland Security official. "This designation has been part of that constant monitoring, reevaluation and reassessment of the appropriate response."

The United States reserves temporary protected status for people from countries experiencing conditions deemed too dangerous to return to, such as Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Unlike other recipients, protected people from West Africa will not be allowed to travel home and then return to the United States, in order to prevent the disease from spreading.

Nationals from the three countries must undergo a background check in order to receive protected status. Those with a criminal history will not be approved, said the Homeland Security official.

source: interaksyon.com

Obama sends 3,000 troops to W. Africa to 'turn tide' on Ebola

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama will try to "turn the tide" on the Ebola epidemic Tuesday by ordering 3,000 US military personnel to west Africa to curtail its spread as China also dispatched more experts to the region.

The White House said Obama will travel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta -- where US Ebola victims were treated -- to make the announcement, meant to spur a global effort to tackle the outbreak that has already killed 2,400 people.

It comes as alarm grows that the worst-ever Ebola epidemic which spread through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea before reaching Nigeria, is out of control. A separate strain of the disease has appeared in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Most of the US effort, which will draw heavily on its military medical corps, will be concentrated in impoverished Liberia -- the worst hit nation -- with plans to build 17 Ebola treatment centres with 100 beds in each.

China is also sending more medics to neighbouring Sierra Leone to help boost laboratory testing for the virus, raising the total number of Chinese medical experts there to 174, the UN said Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday it was reconvening its emergency committee in Geneva which declared the outbreak an international health emergency in August, to consider further measures to limit its spread.

Obama will announce that US Africa Command will set up a headquarters in the Sierra Leone capital Monrovia to act as a command and control centre for US military and international relief programmes.

But the main element of the push is a six-month training and hygiene drive to tackle the disease head-on.

US advisors will train up to 500 Liberian health care providers per week in how to safely handle and treat victims and their families in a bid to shore up the country's overwhelmed health infrastructure.

The intervention will involve an estimated 3,000 US military personnel, senior officials said, many working at a staging base for transit of equipment and personnel.

Washington will also send 65 experts from the public health service corps to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced US military hospital to care for health workers who become sick with Ebola.

Ebola prevention kits, including disinfectant and advice, will also be supplied to 400,000 of the most vulnerable families in Liberia.

"What is clear is in order to combat and contain the outbreak at its source, we need to partner and lead an international response," said one senior US official, on condition of anonymity.

China said it is sending a mobile laboratory team to Sierra Leone, where more than 500 people have died so far from Ebola. The 59-person team from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control will include epidemiologists, clinicians and nurses, the WHO said.

"The newly announced team will join 115 Chinese medical staff on the ground in Sierra Leone virtually since the beginning," the agency's chief Margaret Chan said, hailing the new commitment as "a huge boost, morally and operationally".

Liberian Red Cross health workers wearing protective suits carry the body of a victim of the Ebola virus on September 12, 2014 in a district of Monrovia. AFP

source: interaksyon.com