A three-day curfew has begun in Sierra Leone to enable health workers to find and isolate cases of Ebola.
The aim is to keep people confined to their homes during this operation – and therefore prevent the disease from spreading further.
However, critics say it will damage trust between doctors and the public.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Guinea, the bodies of nine missing health workers and journalists involved in the Ebola campaign have been found.
A government spokesman said some of the bodies had been recovered from a septic tank in the village of Wome. The team had been attacked by villagers on Tuesday.
US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power: ”It is going to spread to other countries… if we do not dramatically scale up our efforts”
Correspondents say many villagers are suspicious of official attempts to combat the disease and the incident illustrates the difficulties health workers face.
Sierra Leone is one of the countries worst hit by West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, with more than 550 victims among the 2,600 deaths so far recorded.
The UN Security Council on Thursday declared the outbreak a “threat to international peace and security”.
The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on states to provide more resources to combat it.
Even the heavy downpour that deluged Freetown since dawn on Thursday did not stop thousands of people from rushing to supermarkets and vegetable markets to stock up on food ahead of the lockdown declared by the president.
The government hopes this drastic action will prove to be the magic bullet in the battle to stop the spread of Ebola, which has hit 13 of the country’s 14 districts, killing more than 500 people.
A supermarket attendant in the west of Freetown told me she that she has had to restock her shelves five times in two days – a mark of the brisk buying that’s going on by those who can afford it.
“I’m here to get some food and beverages for my family that will last us the whole weekend,” Christian Thomas told the BBC. “I’ve also bought dozens of litres of fuel for my generator should the lights go out as is so often the case,” he said.
In the poor eastern suburb of Calaba Town survival is on the minds of many. Customers and traders alike wondered how they would manage to pull it off.
Sierra Leone’s six million citizens were confined to their homes from midnight on Thursday while 30,000 volunteers go door-to-door to find patients or victims.
The teams are also handing out bars of soap and information on preventing infection.
BBC
