Elected parliamentarians from Ebola stricken Kailahun district have on Wednesday 10th June 2014 called up a press conference at Parliament building during which they called for food and medical care for Kailahun whilst expressing displeasure with government’s management of the crisis. They also made known their demands for a more robust response from the central government in Freetown. Present at the meeting were all opposition and ruling party MPs from Kailahun as well as the district’s Paramount Chief MP, Hon. P.C. Mohamed Kailondo Banya.
Each and every MP present spoke on behalf of the suffering people of Kailahun and unanimously agreed that the Ebola outbreak was now an emergency that needed an immediate response. The Kailahun MPs are unhappy that since the outbreak of the disease, the Ministry of Health & Sanitation has not been up to task to put preventive and supportive measures in place to curb the epidemic. They said from their observations during a recent sensitization tour to their constituencies, it was clear that government’s intervention in the provision of safety gears for medical practitioners and food aid to isolated communities is not tartly forthcoming.
In his opening remarks Hon. Mustapha Brima of Constituency 002 who chaired the meeting said they were disturbed by recent setback of the dreadful outbreak that he said was currently ravaging several lives “without any strong response from the central government”. Hon. Brima said they were disappointed that the promise made by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation that they were poised to promptly intervene in case Ebola would become a reality in Sierra Leone from neighbouring countries, has not been realised now that it has become of concern.
“Prior to the outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, we were assured by the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Madam Miatta Kargbo that the country was well prepared for any possible outbreak but the rate at which health workers and ordinary citizens are dying in Kailahun clearly indicates that nothing was planned to repel the attack by the heinous disease,” Hon. Brima vented out in visible anger.
Hon. Patrick Foyah of Constituency 001 reiterated the point made by Hon. Brima. He too registered his disappointment in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and said the ministry should revisit the sensitization programme by telling the people that physical contact is more dangerous than anything. He maintained that the ministry was not making frantic efforts to trace the patients’ contact persons and treat them immediately as some have travelled to cities.
Hon. Foyah emphasized that the Ebola disease was very contagious and so it was very important to take a holistic approach to dealing with it immediately.
“I was in Liberia when the outbreak was announced and the MPs there asked their President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to pass a State of Emergency following which even movement was restricted but it has not happened in our case. We want the government to take action now,” he urged.
Hon. Moiwa Momoh of Constituency 006 where the disease has recorded some of its worst death toll said the number of deaths was has now reached 28 as he urged the government to take timely action to put the epidemic under control.
“When the war was in Liberia our government then was informed about attacks for some 90 days before the attack actually came but no seriousness was paid to the warnings. Similarly in the Ebola case, prior to the outbreak we were long alerted that it was in Guinea and Liberia that the disease had started spreading but we did not as a government take steps to avert the outbreak in Sierra Leone” he stated.
Hon. Moiwa Momoh said even now, enough sensitization has not been done. He disclosed that the infection reached his people in Daru, Jawei chiefdom through a late MCH Nurse, Messie Konneh whom it was who herself first provided medical care for the Ebola patients in Kissi Teng chiefdom. He said when she was overcome with Ebola, her husband brought her to his home in Jawei for treatment thus bringing the Ebola from the far off border of Kissi Teng into Jawei chiefdom.
He said subsequently, all relatives, friends and medical and nursing staff who assisted the sick Nurse Messie Konneh, went on to die adding, “Even the Imam in Daru and other Muslims people who prayed on her corpse and laid Messie to rest are all not alive as we speak here today.”
Hon. Abu Jajua of Constituency 007 said all the health centers in remote communities lack basic protective gears and many do not even have chlorine to wash their hands. He said most health centers have been abandoned in Kailahun and people are now dying without any medical attendance. But he said there is no report of Ebola Death in his constituency he disclosed. He said his sister who died recently from Ebola, died at her marital location in Constituency 006.
Hon. Dr. Bu Buakei Jabbi of Constituency 008 said for his chiefdom, only one nurse has been confirmed dead at the Kenema Government Hospital as a result of Ebola but nothing had been put in place to trace her contact persons when she was sick. The nurse he said was working at one village in his constituency but when she became sick she travelled to Kenema for treatment.
The first ever ruling party MP in the opposition stronghold, the APC’s Hon. Sahr Patrick Tengbeh of Constituency 03 initially tried downplaying the failures of the ruling party led APC government but later he confessed that many people have died in his constituency but he could not tell if it was from Ebola as there was not enough medical care. He said in the last 48 hours “over 8 people have died” and whilst it is not laboratory confirmed whether it is Ebola, all of them had recorded contact with other Ebola victims prior to their deaths. He said his people now need urgent medical attention and joined with his SLPP colleagues to call on central government to send both medical and food assistance to Kailahun.
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