PAYNESVILLE, Montserrado – A total of thirteen households from nine homes within the affected Cow Field community in Paynesville are currently being quarantined in the newest Ebola outbreak, although the quarantine is not being strictly enforced.
A visit by The Bush Chicken to the affected community revealed that the newest Ebola-quarantined area is not effectively restricted.
Motorcyclists, vehicles and visitors were seen moving in and out of the isolated area. Additionally, it was not clear which individuals were quarantined.
At one point, a Bush Chicken reporter was already interacting with an individual from the community when a Community-based Initiative worker told him that the person was being quarantined and should not be close to others. The Community-based Initiative program was set up to assist the Health Ministry to better track cases and contain the outbreak with the help of community volunteers.
The lack of an effective control of persons coming in contact with the quarantined individuals could undermine the entire process.
Although the Ministry has not directly used the term quarantined to refer to the efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the volunteers at the scene explicitly described it as such.
According to information obtained from the affected Cow Field area, the quarantined individuals were instructed by health authorities not to speak or be photograph by any journalist.
A source within the Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose privileged information, said the Ministry is avoiding calling the containment a quarantine and avoiding erecting barricades as was done during the heat of Ebola because it does not want to arouse fears in citizens.
On Tuesday, November 24, Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Francis Kateh announced that the 15-year-old boy who contracted Ebola had died on Monday at the Emergency Treatment Unit in Monrovia.
Featured photo showing a family quarantined in January 2015 by UNMEER/Martine Perret
