Burial team attacked in Sierra Leone amid 3-day lockdown

[tetano]

Health workers in Sierra Leone have come under attack while trying to bury the bodies of five Ebola victims east of the capital, a police official said.

Sgt. Edward Momoh Brima Lahai said there was a confrontation Saturday between a group of youths and the burial team in the Waterloo district.


A witness told state television the burial team initially had to abandon the five bodies in the street and flee. Lahai said the burial was successfully completed after police reinforcements arrived.

Sierra Leone is in the middle of an unprecedented three-day lockdown intended to stop the spread of Ebola.

Stephen Gauja, co-ordinator of an emergency operations centre in the capital, said Saturday that residents were "largely compliant" with health care workers and volunteers who distributed soap and information about the deadly disease.

The government is confining its 6 million people to their homes through Sunday in a bid to stem the biggest Ebola outbreak in history.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ebola-...in-sierra-leone-amid-3-day-lockdown-1.2772813

 

[Emily]

Re: Burial team attacked in Sierra Leone amid 3-day lockdown

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11111527/Sierra-Leone-Ebola-burial-team-attacked-despite-lockdown.html

Reuters
3:07AM BST 21 Sep 2014
...

Some have criticised Sierra Leone's lockdown measures, warning of food shortages and saying it might cause people to go to extra lengths to conceal highly contagious bodies.

But volunteers said they were bombarded with calls on an Ebola hotline over the last two days, receiving hundreds of requests for help.

Stephen Gaojia, head of an emergency services operation, said the ability of his teams to respond to the calls was limited by shortages of staffing and equipment.

"We need about 14 burial teams, as we speak we have about nine", he said. "So if we have more number of people that will be able to improve our response time"...