New Ebola cases in Waterloo, Sierra Leone
Waterloo, Sierra Leone had worrying news last week. After 22 days without a new case of Ebola being diagnosed in the District, two ladies who are next-door neighbours were found to be positive for the virus. Six houses in Cole Town have been cordoned off, and WP is now providing essential food supplies for 69 people in the 22 families which have been quarantined. There are 21 children under-five involved, including 5 babies under 2yrs old. They will all be confined to their own homes for three weeks in quarantine, anxiously hoping that no-one else develops symptoms.
So although some of the big NGOs are packing up and going home, the Ebola virus has not gone away. Sadly it’s proving very difficult to eradicate in several Districts of Sierra Leone, including Freetown. During April there have been about 10 new cases of Ebola virus every week, but that number hasn’t been going down. In fact it’s about the same number that was occurring when the state of emergency was declared last July – so there is still a very long way to go. This latest outbreak in Waterloo tells us that more health education is going to be needed before the virus is beaten.