Sierra Leone’s planned Ebola lockdown could ‘spread disease further’
Plan to bar people from leaving their homes on 18-21 September could drive infected people underground, say aid agencies
Lisa O’Carroll
TheGuardian.com
Saturday 6 September 2014
A four-day nationwide lockdown announced by the Sierra Leone government in a bid to contain the biggest ever outbreak of Ebola could instead exacerbate the spread of the disease, aid agencies have warned.
From 18 to 21 September people across the west African nation will not be allowed to leave their homes, a senior official in the president’s office said on Friday.
But Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) raised concern about the drastic step, warning that it could lead people to try to conceal infections from the authorities.
A spokeswoman said: “It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end up driving people underground and jeopardising the trust between people and health providers. This leads to the concealment of potential cases and ends up spreading the disease further.”
The move was intended to allow health workers to identify and isolate new cases to prevent the disease from spreading further, said Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a presidential adviser on the country’s Ebola task force.
“The aggressive approach is necessary to deal with the spread of Ebola once and for all,” he said.
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