News

One of the best-equipped hospitals in Sierra Leone, the Chinese-run facility at Jui has been closed temporarily.

It followed the quarantining of eight Chinese medical workers in Sierra Leone who treated patients suffering from the deadly Ebola virus, the Chinese ambassador in Freetown said Monday.

“Six Chinese doctors and one nurse as well as five local nurses treated an Ebola patient at the Jui Hospital who later died of the virus,” Ambassador Zhao Yanbo is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Effective Thursday 14 August all banks in Sierra Leone will adjust their hours of opening to the public as a way to deal with the Ebola outbreak in the country. Those in the disease epicentre areas like Kenema will be open between 08:30 and 12:30 while those elsewhere in the country will be open between 08:30 and 1:30. This is two hours less than the current business hours.

There will also be no Saturday banking, according to the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Commercial Banks, Clement Dodoo.

By Mohamed T Massaquoi

24 communities in five chiefdoms in the southern district of Pujehun have been washed away by floods.

57 houses collapsed, while 50 others were seriously damaged according to a Red Cross official in the district.

The focal person for disaster management in Pujehun for the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, Ibrahim Pemagbi, said the floods left 1,326 people displaced.

Lunsar– (11 August 2014) – London Mining is pleased to announce the refurbishment of the Lunsar Health Centre, including construction of a new ten-bed maternity ward, as part of the Company’s support for the Government of Sierra Leone’s Primary Healthcare Agenda for mothers and children under five.

AIG Alfred Karrow-Kamara

The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of eastern Sierra Leone says they started "the complete blockading" of Kenema and Kailahun districts last night as a means to keep Ebola at bay in its epicentres.

The UN World Health Organisation has convened a meeting of a panel of medical ethicists next week to explore the use of experimental treatment in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to a release from the global health authority yesterday.

"Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development" the release says.

By Septimus Senessie in Kono

District Medical Officer, DMO, in Kono has told journalists of proof of Ebola in the eastern diamond-rich district, with one patient diagnosed and proven positive.

Dr. Manso Dumbuya said the latest medical verification of Fatmata Pomboh’s condition marked the first officially confirmed case so far since the outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.