The Koinadugu District in the northern part of Sierra Leone has been considered as the last bastion of hope. Even when the Ebola outbreak has already ravaged almost the entire country, this district, which is the biggest in terms of land size with more than 200,000 people, had remained virus free.
However, in the newest report from Reuters, the immunity has already been broken two of the six samples from suspected infected patients turned out to be positive. Moreover, in one of its villages called Fankoya, there were already reported deaths that they may have been caused by the virus.
According to Abdul Sesay, the disease surveillance officer of Koinadugu, reported that the tests came back positive by Wednesday, October 15. Currently they are trying to impose stricter surveillance while investigating how these people got infected by the disease.
Meanwhile, the Momoh Konte, a businessman who left the United States to help his home country fight off the disease, is presently working as the representative of the district's task force. He revealed that they are planning to burn the houses owned by the confirmed Ebola patients as well as those that are near them in a mad dash to contain the virus. Dead bodies of the future victims will also have to be cremated even if the action may be against the burial rites of most of the residents.
The Koinadugu District has been lauded by various health experts and agencies including the World Health Organization. At a time when more than a thousand people had already died in Sierra Leone with hundreds of new cases every week, the impoverished district remained virus free, this even if they are sharing a border with Guinea, where the virus now causing the epidemic may have started.
By activating the cooperation and commitment of the communities in the district, Koinadugu established stringent protocols on human movements, especially those who are coming in and out.
