Ebola cases surge in Sierra Leone

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/01/ebola-cases-surge-in-sierra-leone

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Ebola continues to surge in Sierra Leone, with the number of cases quintupling in Freetown alone in the past two months, according to new figures.

The latest health ministry figures come as the World Health Organisation (WHO) admits it has not met a goal set in early October to get the disease under control by isolating 70% of cases by 1 December. Only Guinea is on track to meet the goal, according to an update from WHO.

In Liberia, only 23% of cases are isolated and 26% of the needed burial teams are in place. In Sierra Leone, about 40% of cases are isolated. Figures for Sierra Leone published over the weekend show that the number of confirmed cases in Freetown now stands at 2,052, almost 200 of those over the past weekend.

There are also concerns about the escalation in infection rates in Port Loko, a district contiguous to the capital that has recorded 860 cases, up from 295 on 1 October. Bombali, home of Makeni, the third biggest town in Sierra Leone, has 807 cases to date.

Koinodugu, a province that prided itself on being Ebola-free until one infected man crossed the border into the Nenei chiefdom in October, has recorded 84 cases as a result.

Overall, the number of cases in the country looks set to eclipse 6,000 once the figures for 30 November are published, with deaths exceeding 1,500 on Saturday with a total of 1,522.

The goal to medically bury 70% of bodies within 60 days has also been missed. But there are hopes that the disease is disappearing from the east, where it first broke out, with only one case in Kenema since the end of October and eight cases in Kailahan, where Médecins Sans Frontières located its first emergency Ebola field hospital in the summer. Kailahan is still taking patients from other parts of the country because of the dire shortage of beds.

Tom Dannatt, founder of the Street Child charity, who has just visited the district, said the roads were so bad that there were local reports of Ebola patients “dying of concussion” before they reached hospital, with some enduring journeys longer than five hours.

His country director, Kelfa Kargbo, told donors at a fundraising event in London on Saturday that Ebola “has reduced our nation to mere beggars”; depriving the country of its growing economy, farmers of their livelihood and children of their schools.

Kargbo said the impact was felt not just by those who were infected. On a weekly basis, 2,000 children become orphans, he said, many of whom are not being picked up by any charities.

Across the three hardest-hit countries, Ebola has infected more than 16,000 people of whom nearly 7,000 have died, according to figures released by WHO on Friday.

“You want to isolate 100% of patients with Ebola and have 100% safe burials,” said Sebastian Funk, director of the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Getting to 70% doesn’t really mean a lot.”

The ultimate goal of WHO’s plan is to isolate all Ebola patients and provide safe burials for all by 1 January.

Feelings have been running high over the death of Sierra Leonean doctor Martin Salia, who was turned away from the British-built Kerry Town hospital before being airlifted to Nebraska in the US.

Over the weekend it emerged that he had driven to Kerry Town, which opened at the beginning of November, but was not admitted even though about 60 beds are empty.

Government sources in London and a colleague in Sierra Leone confirmed on Monday that he had been turned away by staff on a checkpoint and not by Save the Children, which runs the hospital, nor the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which runs a 12-bed unit for health workers.

Neither Save the Children nor the MoD knew of the incident at the time. “If he had been driven there by ambulance, he probably would not have been turned away,” said his colleague.

The British aid effort has come under fire in Sierra Leone for announcing the 100 bed hospital would open when it won’t be fully operational until January.

When the MoD discovered Salia had gone to Kerry Town, he was offered a bed but, by then, he had chosen to go to Hastings hospital, an alternative run by Sierra Leonean staff.