Cape Town - The International Organisation for Migration on Friday announced that they were focused on helping Sierra Leone achieve zero new Ebola cases.
Sierra Leone, one of the three countries hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic, has reported 16 confirmed Ebola cases this week. The other countries that were hit by the Ebola epidemic were Guinea and Liberia.
Just two months ago, it appeared that Sierra Leone was reaching zero new Ebola cases with two confirmed cases. But the situation was not yet under control, as according to IOM, “each day, thousands of travellers cross the international border between Kambia in Sierra Leone, and Forécariah, in Guinea”.
The Guinea and Sierra Leone corridor leading from Conakry, Guinea, to Freetown in Sierra Leone continued to enable people to traverse to and fro, and remained a major Ebola hotspot area, “despite significant humanitarian interventions”.
In the wake of the new confirmed cases, the president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma had declared a 21-day curfew known as Operation Northern Push in Kambia, and Port Loko in Sierra Leone. The curfew, aimed at obtaining zero new confirmed ebola cases by early July, would be enforced from 6am to 6pm during these 21 days.
The IOM, which was focused on containing Ebola in the region, said: “Over the past three weeks, IOM Sierra Leone has activated Phase II of its health and humanitarian border management (HHBM) project in Kambia District by providing 100 percent monitoring of the entry/exit health screening process at the Category A (permanently manned, infrastructure in place) international border crossing with Guinea at Gbalamuya with the deployment of 25 IOM monitors that are in operation in 8 hour shifts 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.”
Phase I focused on establishing health screening processes at the air border of Lungi International Airport, which ended on May 17, and would be rolled out to include land borders and sea ports between the two countries, in addition to continued monitoring of the air space between the countries, IOM said.
HHBM project manager Ben Potter said: “Prior to recent IOM involvement, the health screening process on the Kambia border was somewhat haphazard and inconsistent with travellers displaying a tendency to avoid health screening due to a lack of both human resources and physical infrastructure.”
Ebola has claimed the lives of 11 000 people in West Africa, including 3 900 in Sierra Leone since December 2013.
ANA