[ 2014-09-20 ]

Ebola threatening Sierra Leone with famine as toll crosses 2,600
Freetown, - A famine is looming over Sierra Leone
because of an Ebola outbreak that has killed more
than 2,622 in West Africa, humanitarian experts
warned Thursday.

"We expect severe hunger by March," said Jochen
Moninger, Sierra Leone director of the German aid
agency Welthungerhilfe.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO)
said the toll had crossed 2,600, and that the
suspected and confirmed cases stood at 5,335 in
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Food supplies are running low and prices have
increased drastically because numerous villages
have been quarantined and food transports
restricted in a bid to halt the spread of the
deadly virus, a Welthungerhilfe study found.

Only 40 per cent of fields in Sierra Leone have
been farmed this year because of the epidemic, the
report said. The country's economy relies largely
on agriculture.

"The economy has collapsed," Moninger said.
"Foreign firms left the country. Markets and trade
routes were shut down."

The United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP)
said it has been promised donations of almost 22
million dollars to provide aid to the Ebola-hit
countries.

The World Bank has promised 18.7 million dollars,
earmarked for Guinea (7.1 million dollars), Sierra
Leone (6 million dollars) and Liberia (5.6 million
dollars).

The International Fund for Agricultural
Development, another Rome-based UN agency dealing
with nutrition issues, has pledged 3 million
dollars to benefit "rural communities across all
the affected countries," WFP says.

"Medical treatment without food and water will not
effectively combat the disease," WFP Executive
Director Ertharin Cousin said.

The World Bank has warned that the outbreak of the
haemorrhagic fever could deal a "catastrophic"
blow to already fragile West African countries.

Left unchecked, Ebola could lead to a contraction
of Liberia's economy by 11.7 per cent in 2015,
while the gross domestic product of Sierra Leone
and Guinea could drop 8.9 and 2.3 percentage
points, respectively, the World Bank said.

The European Parliament is meanwhile calling on
countries to pledge more money, equipment and
personnel in the fight against Ebola, hours before
a UN Security Council meeting on the outbreak.

"We seriously underestimated Ebola. The
international community must mobilize to contain
the epidemic," said Socialist lawmaker Norbert
Neuser.

"We need to take resolute action and mobilize all
resources ... we must act now," added Charles
Goerens of the liberal ALDE group.

The lawmakers call on EU countries to "coordinate
flights and establish dedicated air bridges," and
ask the European Commission to "coordinate demand
for and deployment of health personnel, mobile
laboratories, equipment, protective clothing and
treatment centres."

Countries should consider the use of military and
civil defence assets under the leadership of the
UN secretary general, the parliament said in a
resolution.

In a bid to gain control over the outbreak, which
surfaced in March in the region, Sierra Leone is
set to start a three-day national lockdown
Friday.

Citizens will be confined to their homes while
health workers go door to door to identify and
trace Ebola cases and educate people about the
virus.

"We need to restrict movement for us all to avoid
body contact," government spokesman Abdulai
Baratay said.

The humanitarian organization Medecins Sans
Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) criticized
the measure, saying quarantines could prompt
people to hide potential Ebola cases and spread
the disease further.

"It has been our experience that lockdowns and
quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end
up driving people underground and jeopardizing the
trust between people and health providers," the
group said.

Instead of a lockdown, countries urgently need
more health workers and equipment to tackle the
epidemic, it said.

Ebola causes massive haemorrhaging and is
transmitted through contact with blood and other
bodily fluids. If left untreated, it has a
fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.

Source - GNA

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