Sierra Leone Leader: Change Behavior to End Ebola

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Wed, 2014-10-29 15:32 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 29, 2014

By Clarence Roy-Macaulay

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone--As more Ebola cases emerged around the capital, Sierra Leone's president warned that the country won't win the war against the epidemic until people change their behavior, including refraining from touching the sick and the dead.

Health workers place the body of a man into a grave, as he is suspected of contracting and dying from the Ebola virus on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. The United States will help fight Ebola over "the long haul," the American ambassador to the United Nations said on a trip to the West African countries hit by the outbreak.(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)

..In Sierra Leone alone, nearly 3,900 people are believed to have caught the disease, according to World Health Organization figures. The government's own numbers show a steady rise in confirmed cases reported in the capital and surrounding areas. On Tuesday night, for instance, 26 new confirmed cases were reported in the country's western districts, which include Freetown, during the previous 24 hours....In Bombali district, in the north, 32 new confirmed cases were reported.

... President Ernest Bai Koroma said several treatment centers are being built around the country, but that the battle will only be won when people start following the experts' advice: avoid touching the sick or those who may have died of Ebola, don't wash the bodies of the dead and quickly report to health centers if you fall ill.

Koroma said that areas in the country's far east — where the outbreak first hit Sierra Leone — have seen a marked decline in cases because they are following the recommendations.

Read complete report
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sierra-leone-prez-change-behavior-defeat-ebola-26536701

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