Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola
quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies
said.
Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent
the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to
stay in their homes. The government, with help from the U.N.’s World Food
Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But
there are many “nooks and crannies” in the country that are being missed,
Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid’s Sierra Leone representative, said Tuesday.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed nearly 5,000 people and
authorities have gone to extreme lengths to bring it under control, like the
quarantines in Sierra Leone. The country said Tuesday that it would keep a
state of emergency, which includes restrictions on large gatherings, in place
for a full year.
Similar measures have also been used in Liberia and Guinea, the two
other countries hardest hit by the epidemic.
While public health authorities have said such measures may be necessary
to bring under control an Ebola outbreak unlike any other, the Disasters
Emergency Committee, an umbrella organization for aid organizations, warned on
Monday that they were cutting off food to thousands of people.
“The quarantine of Kenema, the third largest town in Sierra Leone, is
having a devastating impact on trade – travel is restricted so trucks carrying
food cannot freely drive around,” the committee said in a statement. “Food is
becoming scarce, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of
ordinary people.”
Because services are not reaching them, people who are being monitored
for signs of Ebola — and should be staying at home — are venturing out to
markets to look for food, potentially contaminating many others, said Kamara.
When houses are put under quarantine, teams are supposed to go to them
to list all their needs, she said: How many people are living there? Are there
pregnant women or sick people with special needs? But Kamara said that with the
infections still increasing quickly, it was difficult for the government to
keep up with the number of people being monitored for the disease.
“The number is just rising exponentially,” she said. “The speed with
which we have to have such a robust system of planning and coordination” is too
fast.
In October, the World Food Program fed more than 450,000 people in Sierra
Leone, including people who are under quarantine or being treated for Ebola,
said Alexis Masciarelli, a spokesman for the agency in Dakar, Senegal. The
distribution of food has been difficult, he said, since it has required
bringing food to remote areas by poor roads. Pick-up trucks have driven around
some communities to do door-to-door handouts.
He acknowledged that getting good information about where people need
help is difficult, but he said WFP asks smaller organizations, with deep
connections to the communities, to help them keep track of a fast-moving
situation.
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