22 Oct Sierra Leone Ebola Update

Justin Marva, superintendent of Administration and Finance for Sierra Leone Conference.

The following update was sent to Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries, on Wednesday, October 22.

The Ebola situation is still ravaging the country. The flash points at the moment are Waterloo, Makeni, Port Loko, and Shenge.

We have got military personnel from England to help us fight the disease, but people are still not following the safety precautions. They are still washing dead bodies and conducting burials at night. Nurses and doctors are also infected because they are not taking the necessary precautions.

However there is much improvement in areas like Kenema and Kailahun where the outbreak first started.

There was a riot yesterday in the eastern district of Kono among youth and police because they wanted to take away a 90-year-old woman who was suspected to be Ebola positive and the youth refused to hand over the old woman to them.

The Defense minister of Sierra Leone has now been appointed by the president as the Chief Executive Officer of the Ebola Response Team in Sierra Leone.

Right now Kenema, Moyamba, Gbangbaia, and Taninahun are quarantined areas where United Brethren churches and schools are located. The second-largest city, Bo, is relatively quiet with minimal cases, but all other private health facilities are closed. It is difficult to buy drugs for even headache.

Please continue to pray for us as a church and as a nation.