Saturday, March 28, 2015

Second Imposition Of Three Day "Stay At Home" Orders Underway In Sierra Leone, Tonight


We here in our lil' shop continue to search the newswires diligently, for any signs of good news on the current and unspeakably tragic Ebola outbreak. Along those lines, we do know that the Phase II trials in Guinea have moved into Phase III -- that is, the scientific consensus now holds that the vaccine candidates are completely safe. And so, the studies will henceforth focus on durability of the immune responses, going forward.

Against the backdrop of that rather hopeful news, we learn that Sierra Leone has imposed (for a second time) a three day ban on unneeded movement, for all her 6 million citizens. The idea is to avoid complacency -- and continue to focus awareness on safe practices. Difficult times. . . require difficult measures. Here is the "Beeb" (BBC) on it all:

. . . .This lockdown comes amidst some rare good news. According to official figures from the World Health Organization, there were just 33 new confirmed cases last week - the lowest number since June 2014.

But with these falling figures there is danger of growing complacency, the government says.

This is one of the main reasons behind the lockdown - volunteers will remind people how to protect themselves against a virus that is still a real threat.

They will focus their efforts on northern and western areas where some infections still come as a surprise to officials - 16% of cases last week were not known Ebola contacts.

Experts have criticized previous stay-at-homes as too heavy-handed and top-down in their approach. Concerns were raised that some people did not have access to food.

The hope is, a year after the outbreak was declared, such logistical problems have been ironed out and that this measure will bring the country closer to its goal of zero Ebola infections by April 15, 2015 - an ambitious target that is just two weeks away. . . .


Sleep tight, one and all. And if you are so inclined, do ask the Infinite for some support here (I myself am bound by a differing covenant). Yes, tomorrow is another day.

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