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The president of Sierra Leone will launch a massive campaign on Wednesday to curb the spread of Ebola in the western areas of the capital Freetown, which will aim to scare people into changing their behaviour.
The “western area surge” will use the sort of tactics that worked in the UK to discourage drink-driving, according to Donal Brown, head of the UK taskforce leading the international response in the country.
“We have got to go into every street, every house everywhere,” said Brown. “The western area surge is about massive social mobilisation and massive surveillance. “Freetown is not a place that feels scared or where people are bothered about Ebola. It is like the car crash or drink-driving campaigns in the UK. We want a campaign that says this is scary, this affects me – along the lines of, ‘Your neighbour stays at home? He kills you.’”
At the moment, swab tests show that 30% of bodies picked up by burial teams after calls from families are positive for Ebola. People are still nursing the sick rather than having them taken to holding centres for testing and then moved into treatment centres where half will probably die. It is in the last stages of the disease that victims are most infectious.
“We know it is out there. We have got to turn it around so that 2% to 3% of these bodies are actually positive,” said Brown.
The reluctance to make the call is rooted not only in family values but also cultural tradition around burials. In normal times, relatives would wash the bodies of those who die and dress them for the funeral. Many are still doing so – and calling the authorities afterwards, which means they have already exposed themselves to great risk.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/16/sierra-leone-scare-tactics-freetown-curb-ebola
The “western area surge” will use the sort of tactics that worked in the UK to discourage drink-driving, according to Donal Brown, head of the UK taskforce leading the international response in the country.
“We have got to go into every street, every house everywhere,” said Brown. “The western area surge is about massive social mobilisation and massive surveillance. “Freetown is not a place that feels scared or where people are bothered about Ebola. It is like the car crash or drink-driving campaigns in the UK. We want a campaign that says this is scary, this affects me – along the lines of, ‘Your neighbour stays at home? He kills you.’”
At the moment, swab tests show that 30% of bodies picked up by burial teams after calls from families are positive for Ebola. People are still nursing the sick rather than having them taken to holding centres for testing and then moved into treatment centres where half will probably die. It is in the last stages of the disease that victims are most infectious.
“We know it is out there. We have got to turn it around so that 2% to 3% of these bodies are actually positive,” said Brown.
The reluctance to make the call is rooted not only in family values but also cultural tradition around burials. In normal times, relatives would wash the bodies of those who die and dress them for the funeral. Many are still doing so – and calling the authorities afterwards, which means they have already exposed themselves to great risk.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/16/sierra-leone-scare-tactics-freetown-curb-ebola