Sierra Leone Ebola lockdown: Focus on safer burials and community outreach

On the eve of a three-day lock-down that will quarantine 6 million people Sierra Leone, World Vision is urging for a greater focus on safer burial and community outreach programs to help stem the spread of Ebola cases.New cases of Ebola are still being reported each week in Sierra Leone a year after the epidemic began and the government has ordered a “national lockdown” this weekend ( from March 27-29) to help stop the spread of the virus.

Leslie Scott, Director of World Vision Sierra Leone, said: “This stay-home is an extreme measure in an extreme crisis. But top-down approaches don’t always work. If we are serious about getting to zero cases soon, we must scale up our community engagement efforts. We need to ensure that people own the messages about hazardous traditional practices, such as washing the deceased, and adopt safe burial practices instead.”

Scott says that World Vision’s Safe and Dignified Burials program has played a critical role in reducing the transmission of Ebola in communities where the agency has worked for more than 20 years. Some 275 workers have been trained and equipped to conduct burials that protect family members from contamination while honoring the dead.

“Burial teams must integrate themselves into the communities they serve and avoid taking a purely medical approach. Safety is paramount when removing the bodies of the deceased, but dignity is equally important,” he explained.

To date, World Vision burial teams have conducted 4,600 burials in six districts across Sierra Leone. These districts have all seen a significant diminution in new infection rates since the burial work began.