Sierra Leone has never exported Ebola

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.