Ebola fight puts Sierra Leone on lockdown

A market stands empty Friday in Freetown in Sierra Leone as the government enforces a three-day lockdown in the country to try to contain the Ebola outbreak.
A market stands empty Friday in Freetown in Sierra Leone as the government enforces a three-day lockdown in the country to try to contain the Ebola outbreak.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- One of the most stringent anti-Ebola measures to date began Friday as Sierra Leone imposed a three-day national lockdown, ordering people off the streets and into their homes in an effort to stamp out the deadly disease.

Police officers patrolled the streets of the densely populated capital, telling stragglers to go home and stay indoors. Volunteers in bright jerseys prepared to go house to house throughout the country to warn people about Ebola's dangers and to root out those who might be infected but staying in hiding.

Health officials said they planned to urge the sick to leave their homes and seek treatment. There was no immediate word on whether people would be forcibly removed, though authorities warned that anyone on the streets during the lockdown without an emergency pass would be subject to arrest.

The normally busy streets of Freetown were empty Friday morning, stores were closed and pedestrians were rare on the main thoroughfares.

The country's president, justifying the extraordinary move in a radio address Thursday night, suggested Sierra Leone was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the disease.

"Some of the things we are asking you to do are difficult, but life is better than these difficulties," President Ernest Bai Koroma said.

More than 2,600 people have died in West Africa over the past nine months in the biggest outbreak of the virus ever recorded, with Sierra Leone accounting for more than 560 of those deaths.

More than 200 new cases of Ebola have been reported in Sierra Leone in the past week, according to the World Health Organization, with transmission described as particularly high in the capital. Nearly 40 percent of cases in the country were identified in the three weeks preceding Sept. 14.

The campaign that began Friday reflected the desperation of West African governments -- and in particular those of the three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- as they struggle with an epidemic that the health authorities have warned is showing no signs of slowing down.

Many fear the crisis will grow far worse, in part because sick people afraid of dying at treatment centers are hiding in their homes, potentially infecting others.

However, international experts warned there might not be enough beds for new patients found during the lockdown, which runs through Sunday.

No country has attempted anything on the scale of what is being tried in Sierra Leone, where more than 20,000 volunteers were enlisted to help identify households where authorities suspect people infected with the Ebola virus are hiding.

Yet there were plenty of indications Friday that the campaign promised more than it could initially deliver in the country of 6 million people, at least in the capital.

Well into the morning, the house-to-house visits had yet to begin in Kroo Bay, a densely populated warren of iron-roof shanties where roughly 14,000 people live, despite officials saying they would start at dawn.

The neighborhood, a perennial center of cholera outbreaks, sits in a sea of muddy lanes and open sewers in which pigs forage. The police cruised into Kroo Bay in a pickup, yelling at lingering residents to go indoors and warning of imprisonment. People simply stared at the officers and continued lingering as the police drove off.

"The policeman is doing his thing, and I am doing my thing," said Kerfala Koroma, 22, a building contractor who added that he was waiting for his breakfast. "We can't even afford something to eat on a normal day. How can we get something now?"

Residents insisted there had been no cases of Ebola in Kroo Bay, although there were complaints from some that the bodies of victims had been dumped in a nearby cemetery.

As the morning wore on, the house-to-house volunteers began to assemble in a bare-bones community center, with several noting that they were not being paid. Others stressed the daunting challenge of covering thousands of households with a team of only 50.

Yet some volunteers expressed hope that their efforts would not be wasted.

"You have the chance to get the people with the disease out," said Emmanuel Cole, a 33-year-old taxi driver who said he had refused to take any passengers since the epidemic began, for fear of becoming infected.

"The country is not moving now. We have got to help the country now," Cole said. "It is not a normal time."

In addition to identifying any Ebola victims in hiding, health care workers also planned to hand out 1.5 million bars of soap during the shutdown and dispense advice on Ebola.

"We hope and pray that when we talk to people they will take it as counseling," said Rebecca Sesay, a community Ebola education team leader. "That is why we are all out here."

The United Nations Children's Fund said the government campaign provides an opportunity to tell people how to protect themselves.

"If people don't have access to the right information, we need to bring lifesaving messages to them, where they live, at their doorsteps," said Roeland Monasch, agency representative in Sierra Leone.

In a statement, the agency said the operation needs to be carried out "in a sensitive and respectful manner."

Confusion and fear about the disease and anger over some of the measures taken to stop it have sparked unrest in some places.

On Friday, six suspects were arrested in the killings of eight people in Guinea who were on an Ebola education campaign, the Guinean government said.

The victims were attacked by villagers armed with rocks and knives. The dead included three local journalists.

According to an estimate under development by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa could spread to hundreds of thousands more people by the end of January, with a worst-case scenario of 550,000 or more infections if it isn't brought under control.

The report, scheduled to be released next week, was described by two people familiar with its contents, who asked to remain anonymous because it isn't yet public.

The projection, which vastly outstrips previous estimates, is under review by researchers and may change. It assumes no additional aid or intervention by governments and relief agencies, which are mobilizing to contain the Ebola outbreak.

The United Nations on Thursday announced the creation of a special emergency mission to respond to the crisis, saying the effort needs to increase greatly.

The U.S. is intensifying its effort, planning to deploy about 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the region to assist with shipping and distributing medical supplies and building treatment centers.

Major Gen. Darryl Williams, U.S. Army-Africa commander, arrived in Monrovia on Wednesday with a 12-person team to assess the situation there, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. That includes deciding where to build treatment sites and what else will be needed from the U.S. military.

One C-17 transport plane has already arrived, and two more are scheduled for next week, bringing 45 personnel and helping to set up a command headquarters, Kirby said.

Meanwhile, Germany said Friday that it plans to work with France to establish airlifts to Ebola-affected countries.

The German foreign ministry said 100 soldiers and two military planes will initially be provided for the operation, which might use Dakar, Senegal, as a hub.

Germany also plans to help set up field hospitals, provide military equipment and conduct training for medical staff in West Africa.

Information for this article was contributed by Adam Nossiter of The New York Times; by Clarence Roy-Macaulay, Kabba Kargbo, Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Maria Cheng, Boubacar Diallo and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Caroline Chen, Brendan Greeley, Kelly Gilblom and Roger Runningen of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 09/20/2014

Upcoming Events