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It had been five months
since an Ebola death when Musa Kamara traveled to his hometown for festivities
to mark the end of Ramadan. Not long after his sudden death in this roadside village,
authorities came with a grim message: The killer virus was back. Soon officials
barricaded this community of nearly 600 people, putting up orange plastic
fencing to quarantine half the town for the 21-day Ebola incubation period
after potential exposure. But late last week, residents who could only talk to
family on the other side of the fence by phone erupted into song and dance when
President Ernest Bai Koroma came to cut it down, marking the formal end of
Sierra Leone's largest remaining quarantine.
AP
report continues:
Alie
Senkoh, 21, said he couldn't wait to "move all around town" after
days of playing cards and dice at home with his aunt and grandmother.
"We
are feeling good because we are healthy and there is no more Ebola here,"
he said. "We believe this was the only way to stop the transmission."
Even
amid the jubilation, there was reason for caution. Authorities continue to monitor
dozens of others who came into contact with 23-year-old Kamara, his mother and
uncle, who later became infected. Both are recovering, health authorities said.
The World Health Organization announced Monday that 43 people will remain in
quarantine until the end of this week, while 38 others in the capital,
Freetown, where Kamara lived, must stay in quarantine until Aug. 29.
Officials
desperately hope they can soon announce the start of the countdown to an
Ebola-free declaration from WHO nearly 15 months after the first patient tested
positive in Sierra Leone.
After
the last patient is released, the country must go 42 days — two incubation
periods — before such a declaration can be made. The benchmark already was
reached in Liberia, only for that country to face a brief setback when new
cases emerged.
Billboards
plastered throughout Sierra Leone's capital still warn people to dial the 117
hotline to report all deaths, and others encourage families to "pray from
at least one meter (yard) away" to avoid contact with highly infectious
corpses.
Yet
there are signs the country is starting to let down its guard. The main road
from the capital east to the second city of Bo and onwards to the town of
Kenema still has more than half a dozen stopping points where passengers must
undergo temperature checks. But hand soap is no longer put out with many of the
hand-washing buckets that were once so essential.
Koroma
has warned Sierra Leoneans about such complacency amid the recent successes in
the fight against Ebola. During his visit to this quarantined village, he
reminded people how they had made it 150 days without a case "only to
return to square one" when the latest victim was buried by his family
before his diagnosis of Ebola was known.
"You
should report people who are sick and all dead bodies," the president
urged the crowds celebrating their release.
When
Kamara returned to his home village, the family did not suspect Ebola. More
than two dozen of his closest relatives were considered at high risk, though
only his mother and an uncle developed Ebola.
It
was a much better outcome than initially feared when it was learned he had
sought treatment at two health facilities before dying — and then had a
traditional burial because the family did not think he had Ebola. Contact with
bodies has been a major source of disease transmission since the first case
emerged in neighboring Guinea in late 2013.
While
authorities have released most residents from quarantine, about a dozen of
Kamara's relatives must remain inside their homes for another week until the
incubation period has passed.
His
21-year-old sister, Mamusu Kargbo, wiped tears from her eyes as she watched
jubilant neighbors bang on makeshift drums made from empty water jugs, dancing
and chanting, "Now we have our freedom!"
Her
brother, who sold eggs and other goods on the streets of Freetown, had been
fasting for the holy month of Ramadan and said nothing about feeling unwell.
Now he leaves behind a wife, a young son and other family back in his home
village who counted on his remittances to eke by.
"For us it is not yet
over," she said of Ebola. "We have lost our brother and this is a big
change for us to accept."
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