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Biohazard suits and a Funeral in the age of Ebola in Sierra Leone

January 14, 2015 By Marlene R. Litten

ebola-sierra-leone

One can barely hear the prayers by the surrounding people as the body of a 31-year-old woman is carried out of her tiny house here in Freetown.

Few dozens of the neighbors, some family members came to watch the body of a woman named Maritau, while been loaded in the ambulance.

At the front of this small crowd stands Maritau’s husband Edward Kamada with their three children. He breaks down and tells us, simply, “I lost my wife.”

The youngest, Five years old boy pulls his shirt over his face to hide his tears.

This is how a funeral looks like in Free Tow which is capital of Sierra Leona and a focal point of the Ebola outbreak.

The dead body of the lady was wrapped twice in medical body bags. Her pallbearers are strangers, wearing biohazard suits and full face masks.

Andella Carew and her sister who are the part of the burial team said “I’m doing it for my country. If I don’t do it, who will?”

The sisters were sure that their personal protection equipment will keep them safe from the virus. But they admit that not everyone shares that confidence.

“My friends have abandoned me, even my boyfriend sacked me,” Fudia Kamara, Andella’s sister, says.

The ambulance already contained two dead bodies that died due to Ebola.

Eight others also died from Ebola in this area, neighbors said.

Her young widower vehemently denies it, “No, not Ebola, not Ebola!” he insists, telling us she had epilepsy and that is what killed her.

Now only a lab test will confirm whether the death reason was ebola or not. It almost doesn’t matter. Just the possibility that it might be Ebola means Maritau’s family will likely be stigmatized in their community, regardless of the result they will get in five days.

A cemetery in Freetown will be the final resting place for Maritau.  An earthmover is clearing away garbage in an adjacent dump to make more room for bodies.

On an Estimate 75 bodies are buried here each day. But not all of those have succumbed to Ebola. Virtually everyone who dies in Sierra Leone, regardless of the cause, is supposed to be given a medical funeral. There is simply no other option.

“If they continued to do traditional burials in Sierra Leone, where you wash the body, you touch the body, you kiss the body.

“If it’s a confirmed case well, there could be 10 more right there,” says Trevor Jessome, a Nova Scotian who oversees these burials and the cemetery for the charity Concern.

A Canadian epidemiologist, Dr. Bruce Aylward who is running the World Health Organization’s response to Ebola, says too many people in Sierra Leone continue to reject the safe burials. “There are still hidden burials or secret burials where people don’t want to believe their loved ones died of Ebola, and they don’t want to hand them over to a stranger to be buried,” he says.

Since October around 4000 are buried in growing cemetery in Free Town. Now someday in future when Ebola will be eradicated from the country, this cemetery will become a memorial to the many thousands of lives it took.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: biohazard suits, deaths, Ebola, funerals, lab test, Maritau, medical body bags, reports

Flu epidemic hits US and claiming young lives

December 30, 2014 By Cliff Jenkins Scott

Flu-epidemic-hits-US-young-lives

CDC says that US has hit a flu epidemic threshold and already claimed the life of 15 children.

US Federal public health agency, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the death of 122 people from pneumonia and influenza has surpassed the baseline and now stands at the epidemic threshold.

Number of states reporting high flu activity have also increased from 13 to 22.

The reason behind the explosion of the disease is due to the mutation of the virus named H3N2 so eventually the effectiveness of the vaccines has reduced.

CDC has reported that the effectiveness of the vaccine was recorded to be 55 percent last year which has certainly reduced because of the mutation of H3N2.

Some cases of H1N1 and two types of Influenza B are also reported. Some are included in the current flu vaccines and some are not. CDC recommends people to get vaccinated so that it will protect people from the flu that out there.

CDC said in a statement “A total of 15 influenza-associated deaths have been reported during the 2014-2015 season from nine states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia,”

About half the children sick enough to be hospitalized had been perfectly healthy. Many of those with so-called underlying conditions were obese or had asthma, both of which can raise the risk that someone will get seriously ill from flu.

Generally flu hits people of very young and very old age. Yearly it kills 4000 to 50000 people a year depending on the season.

The best way to protect ourselves from flu is to wash our hands frequently. Flu is actually transmitted by close contact with someone, coughing, sneezing or touching the droplets and touching nose, eyes or mouth with it.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: CDC, deaths, flu, H1N1, H3N2, Influenza B, report, USA

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