Sierra Leone Ebola
lockdown exposes hundreds of suspected cases
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[March 31, 2015]
FREETOWN (Reuters) - A three-day
lockdown in Sierra Leone has exposed hundreds of potential new cases of
Ebola, aiding efforts to bring to an end an epidemic that has already
killed 3,000 people in the country.
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Officials ordered the country's 6 million residents to stay indoors
or face arrest during the period that ended late on Sunday as
hundreds of health officials went door-to-door looking for hidden
patients and educating residents about the virus.
Reports to authorities of sick people increased by 191 percent in
Western Area, which includes the capital, during the lockdown
compared with the previous weekend, said Obi Sesay of the National
Ebola Response Center.
"Tests are being carried out on their blood samples, and the results
will be in by Wednesday," Sesay said, adding that 173 of the
patients in Freetown met an initial case definition for Ebola.
In the rest of the country, there was a 50 percent increase in sick
people reported in the lockdown's first two days, Sesay said.
Sierra Leone has reported nearly 12,000 cases since the worst Ebola
epidemic in history was detected in neighboring Guinea a year ago.
In all, more than 10,000 people have died in the two countries plus
Liberia.
New cases have fallen since a peak of more than 500 a week in
December, but the government said the lockdown, its second, would
help identify the last cases and reduce complacency.
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A source who declined to be identified said there were 961 death
alerts nationwide during the lockdown's first two days and 495
reports of illness of which 235 were suspected Ebola.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg/Hugh
Lawson)
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