t is now confirmed that 4 people have died of Ebola-like symptoms at the referral Hospital in Guerkedou which is the big town located directly across from Yenga.
PRELIMINARY tests seem to indicate at least one sample of one of the corpses has tested positive for Ebola. Sadly, one of the sick patients has already moved to Conakry the capital.
Take note that it is this SAME Guerkedou hospital that our own first case of Ebola who got infected in *February 2014* had died after she caught Ebola, fell sick in Sierra Leone and crossed the river to Guerkedou Hospital to seek treatment in Guinea.
At the time, we (Sierra Leone) neither Guinea knew Ebola had been ravaging the Kissi areas since December 2013. Infact, although Guinea’s first confirmed case was announced in March 2014, subsequent research shows that Sierra Leone’s first Ebola case was in February 2014.
She was a 37-year-old woman named Sia Wanda Koniono.This time, one hopes the two countries are better prepared and there will not be any cover-ups.Whilst one may say Thank God for the closure of the border at Yenga, it is not really a means of stopping movement between the Kissi people in those three countries. They are always visiting one and other. That border closure is not firm. So let us pray. ALBERT MOMOH
____________________________________—-
EBOLA: This is a very serious issue as His Excellency President Maada Bio has said. Preventing this diseases from entering our country will be much appreciated.
It will be too much of a burden to our government and its people. There’s too much at hand at this point to handle than to allow an additional round of this deadly disease in our country. The entry of Ebola in Sierra Leone is a NO NO.
Border control: We should cite an example from the former president of the Gambia Yayah Janneh. There was not even one case of the Ebola virus recorded in his country, why? Because the first day he found out that neighboring countries Guinea and SL reported some cases he closed his border immediately. I was in FT and I got angry at him because people that I knew did business in the Gambia back and forth came to a standstill. I didn’t understand his reasoning at first until Ebola became an Epidemic and till the end of Ebola there were no cases recorded in the Gambia.
Now that our government has discovered this new wave in Guinea the ministry of health should stand firm and work in collaboration with the SL border force in not letting anyone in or out from SL to Guinea and vise verse.
It should be made known to the border guards that they will be held at high esteem to prevent any entry of any individual from Guinea. Please there’s too much to risk here. Our people went through hell and back. I knew six people who died in one family because their herbalist dad didn’t know what he was dealing with when infected patients came to see him for herbal remedies to their illness and he took it home to his family and infected all six people and only the youngest son survived whom i’m paying college fee for at this time.
GOD HELP US
De Don.
