Ebola quarantines violated in search of food
Aid agencies say thousands being monitored for signs of Ebola in Sierra Leone are venturing out to find food.
Kamara said that because services are not reaching them, people who are being monitored for signs of Ebola – and should be staying at home – are venturing out to markets to look for food, potentially contaminating many others.
Food is becoming scarce, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of ordinary people.
“The number is just rising exponentially,” she said. “The speed with which we have to have such a robust system of planning and coordination” is too fast.
Earlier in the week, the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation for aid agencies, said that quarantines, designed to control the spread of Ebola, were having a devastating effect on the country’s economy.
“The quarantine of Kenema, the third largest town in Sierra Leone, is having a devastating impact on trade – travel is restricted so trucks carrying food cannot freely drive around,” the committee said in a statement.
“Food is becoming scarce, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of ordinary people.”
Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to stay in their homes.
The government, with help from the UN’s World Food Programme, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people.
Authorities said on Tuesday they would keep a state of emergency, which includes restrictions on large gatherings, in place for a full year.
The distribution of food has been difficult, he said, since it has required bringing food to remote areas where roads are in a poor state. Pick-up trucks have driven around some communities to do door-to-door handouts.
Masciarelli acknowledged that getting good information about where people need help was difficult, but he said the WFP was asking smaller organisations, with deep connections to the communities, to help them keep track of a fast-moving situation.