Jaramenajara and John Koroma
Panic is escalating in the west as the first Ebola patient succumbed to
the disease two weeks ago in Dallas, Texas.
The man had traveled from Liberia
to the US and this wasn’t the first time someone slipped through the tight
security measures at airports around the world. The late Sawyer also traveled
from Liberia to Lagos, Nigeria where he died. The case of the Guinean student
who traveled to Senegal also readily comes to mind in terms of the exportation
of Ebola across national borders and frontiers.
Unlike neighboring Liberia and Guinea, Sierra Leone since the outbreak
of the dreadful disease in March this year, has never exported a single Ebola
patient to any country in the world. Though Ebola is peculiar in Sierra Leone
and treating it needs expertise and much needed equipment and medical supplies,
yet infected persons of the disease have always been treated in the country and
no case has ever been reported of exportation of Ebola to another country. All
Ebola cases have been treated in Sierra Leone and with good number of survivors
comparatively exceeding the Ebola worst hit countries of Guinea and Liberia.
For this, we must give credit to our local frontline health workers and
doctors.
To reduce the likelihood of someone slipping through the system, the
Sierra Leone government in collaboration with airport officials had put in
place stringent screening measures to ensure that no infected person leaves the
country to seek medical attention elsewhere. This is an indication of the
seriousness of the authorities to not only swiftly deal with the outbreak right
here at the source, but also avoid possible marring of international response
in terms of flights jetting into the country with expertise and equipment and
to encourage proper collaborative international efforts in the fight against
Ebola.
President Koroma on several occasions had assured the world that Sierra
Leone will not export the dreadful virus to any country. “Sierra Leone will not
export Ebola to any country,” he said, adding that the disease itself is not
something anybody will wish for.
Ebola is neither a Sierra Leonean issue nor that of West African. It is
apparently a global threat which should be treated globally. Isolation of
countries affected by Ebola as the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
rightly said is not an answer and can never be a solution for containing the
world’s most dreadful disease. Treating Ebola inexcusably needs both local and
international cooperation. Norwegian Foreign Minister Mr. Borge Brende in his
visit to President Koroma to show solidarity said that Ebola is not only an
issue of Sierra Leone but a global issue that requires a global response.
Margaret Chan of World Health Organization said that the Ebola outbreak has
definitely led to a crisis for international peace and security. But for
efficient and effective global response to be fully realized in this fight
there should be a total travelling liberty. Any attempt to isolate countries
affected by Ebola will hinder the most needed international response and hence
worsen the situation. The UK’s recent decision to cancel flights to Sierra
Leone is an epitome of wrong decision taken at the wrong time and has the
potential to hinder global response in the fight against the outbreak.
Medicines’ San Frontiers reprimanded the decision of flight cancellation to
Sierra Leone by the UK. “It’s extremely difficult to get much needed staff into
the region and at a time we need more people on the ground than ever, this is
very unhelpful,” a spokeswoman of MSF told The Guardian.
There are several other methods to prevent Ebola order than barricading
air-traffic. The US has just introduced one method of preventing the
transmission of the virus. In preventing possible transmission of the disease,
the US Government has introduced vibrant screening for passengers who travel
from vulnerable countries. This method I believe can help to not only break the
chain of transmission of the disease but also help to leave the door widely
open for much needed global intervention.
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