WHY THE FIGHT AGAINST EBOLA IS AN HERCULEAN TASK IN SIERRA LEONE – OUR SIDE OF THE STORY

The unprecedented prevailing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa can properly be described as a conundrum, so confusing and difficult to solve. Many questions have been asked by the inquiring minds with regards to the appearance of this outbreak in this region of Africa where it has never occurred before, and far from where it has always occurred, East Africa, but especially why it has reached such an alarming rate of becoming both an epidemic and a pandemic. The spate of this outbreak, if not stemmed with maximum efforts locally and internationally, has the potential of becoming Africa’s Black Death. The symptoms pointing towards that direction are already evident in the rising death toll, the tripling percentage of new infections which is devastating the lives of many people and debilitating the entire pillars of society. 

Apart from the direct and immediate consequences of this hemorrhagic fever, that is, the soaring death toll, this Ebola outbreak is reeling the economies of private and public investments, as many citizens are continually losing their jobs and their means of livelihood, many companies and industries are folding up, amidst the escalation in the prices of the essential goods and services, leaving behind its trail a whole lot of psycho-social problems like traumatized orphans and stigmatized survivors. It also has the potential of triggering social and political upheavals that can bring down governments as the security concerns mount.  

The principal aim of this paper is to tell of our story, shocking and scandalous as it may be, in order to bring to the knowledge of the international community the magnitude of this outbreak and its causes. Secondly, this paper aims at provoking the thoughts of the local intelligentsia, especially the Sierra Leonean educationists, and policy makers, to pull together lessons we can learn from this outbreak and to proffer meaningful recommendations to the powers that be for the making of national social welfare policies that can improve the living standards of Sierra Leoneans.