Ebola diary: 'There are reports of people disappearing into the forest to die'

THE GUARDIAN     by Sarah Bosley                                                                           Dec. 9, 2014                          FREETOWN --  Sierra Leone has its first-ever call centre. The number to reach it is 117. You can call to report that your mother is sick or your brother is dead. It is a call nobody wants to make, but posters and newspapers and radio broadcasts urge you to pick up the phone – for your own sake and your family’s, but beyond that, for the sake of everybody else you know and don’t know.

Burials of Ebola victims recorded week-by-week. Photograph: Sarah Boseley

It’s a tough one, because that call leads to quarantined homes and holding centres for people with suspected Ebola, where people who do have the virus are sharing rooms with those who eventually turn out to have something else. There’s a real possibility you could go in with malaria and pick up Ebola. It is in the public interest that you make that call. But it is hardly surprising if some people hesitate and others run and hide

"People are afraid to report their numbers to the government. They are afraid to call the helpline. They are afraid they will be taken away to treatment centres and never see their families again. There are reports of people disappearing into the forest because they’d rather die with their family than be taken into a treatment site.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/09/-sp-ebola-reports-of-people-disappearing-forest-die