Sierra Leone starts house-to-house searches for Ebola patients

[Gert van der Hoek]

Sierra Leone to start house-to-house searches for Ebola patients

FREETOWN Wed Dec 17, 2014

(Reuters) - Sierra Leone will start house-to-house searches for Ebola patients on Wednesday and impose internal travel restrictions as part of a new push to combat the epidemic, President Ernest Bai Koroma said.


Sierra Leone to Search Freetown Houses for Ebola Patients

December 16, 2014 11:34 AM

Authorities in Sierra Leone plan to conduct house-to-house searches around the capital, Freetown, to look for hidden Ebola patients.

Freetown has become a center of the West African Ebola outbreak, reporting more than 130 new confirmed cases in the first week of December, one-third of the country's total.

In a statement, Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma told residents of Freetown "don't hide the sick" when health workers begin visiting houses on Wednesday.

The statement said the searches are aimed at "extracting every sick person" in order to break the chain of transmission for the Ebola virus.

More: VOA

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone to start house-to-house searches for Ebola patients

Re: Sierra Leone to start house-to-house searches for Ebola patients

Ebola centers overflow as Sierra Leone steps up fight

By Emma Farge
DEVIL HOLE, Sierra Leone Wed Dec 17, 2014 2:32pm EST

(Reuters) - Ebola centers in Sierra Leone overflowed on Wednesday as health workers combed the streets of the capital Freetown for patients, after the government launched a major operation to contain the epidemic in West Africa's worst-hit country.

President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that travel between all parts of the country had been restricted as part of "Operation Western Area Surge", and public gatherings would be strictly controlled in the run-up to Christmas.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-health-ebola-leone-idUSKBN0JV0SI20141217