Drastic Measures in Africa to Fight Deadly Ebola

The deadly Ebola Virus which continues to ravage large swaths of western Africa is not slowing down. To combat this dreaded disease, which in name alone, sends shivers down the spine of people thousands of miles removed from the infection sites, one country -  Sierra Leone, is calling for a lock down of the entire country for three days to fight the disease.

Should the Sierra Leone government execute the planned lock down from September 19 to 22, this measure would amount to the most draconian action taken so far to combat Ebola which has already killed some 2,100 Africans from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Last month, Liberia quarantined a large slum in its capital of Monrovia for more than week in an attempt to prevent the spread of Ebola. Sierra Leone's new action, as reported by the BBC, would involve a force of some 20,000 deployed to enforce the national lock down to let health officials isolate new cases of the virus. The country's Information Minister, Alpha Kanu, admits that the lock down is extraordinary, but necessary to stem the spread of Ebola which has killed at least 500 people in Sierra Leone alone.

However, some medical groups working within Africa to combat the Ebola Virus, have questioned the necessity to lock down Sierra Leone citing possible concealment of potential cases of the virus and possible distrust by the people of health caregivers  as negative impacts from such a measure. 

Whatever the means, the war against this gruesome deadly disease must be waged and won. Those medical soldiers on the front line of this health war continue to risk their own exposures to contain this disease within the present boundaries. And against this background, these agencies, hospitals and personnel must be equipped with all the necessary tools needed to prevent a global contamination by the Ebola Virus.