Ebola Care Comes Under Attack

If things were not already terrible in West Africa a group of Ebola victims were attacked in Sierra Leon’s capitol on Saturday. Apparently a small group of militants defied the recently imposed 3 day lockdown designed to stop the outbreak from spreading.

It is one of the most extreme and one of the most controversial measures to be imposed since the beginning of the epidemic in Sierra Leone. The area has ordered all of the 6 million residents and volunteers to stay inside their homes as other volunteers go around to further education about the disease.

For the most part, residents have been compliant, according to Sierra Leone president Ernsest Bai Korma. In fact by just the second day of the lockdown order, the streets were already mostly empty except for the occasional ambulance. Saturday’s attack on the health care workers was swift and it happened in the small village of Matainkay, which is only three miles from the Waterloo district known as Freetown.

This may be the first of many unpredictable attacks on the community trying to fix the rising epidemic of Ebola cases plaguing West Africa this year. More than 5,357 people have died so far in Libera, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. 2,630 of those victimize have died since then. Liberia, neighbor to Sierra Leone, has also put up a temporary quarantine to try to contain their outbreak, but strong street protests caused them to lift the ban.

And some criticize Sierra Leone for their restriction measure. Detractors warn that food shortage and infighting will continue as those locked inside will fight for food and also work to conceal any infections they might know about. All in all, this is a horrible incident that they need to continue working on to ensure everyone’s safety.