Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Exams cancelled amid Ebola crisis
FREETOWN
The Sierra Leone
government has postponed this year’s secondary school exams nationwide
as the West African Ebola outbreak further spikes in the country.
The
epidemic which is ravaging the three neighbouring countries of Sierra
Leone, Guinea and Liberia, is said to be in its second phase after
initially slowing down only to re-surge with seemingly uncontrollable
intensity.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on
Monday put the global death toll since the outbreak in Guinea in
February at 350, up from 330 only about two days earlier.
The total cases of infection in the region is 567.
Most
of the deaths are in Guinea but the disease is fast growing in Sierra
Leone, the UN health body said. Over 70,000 pupils were set to take the
West African Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) early July
in Sierra Leone. But the government said it would not afford bringing
people together amidst the health threat, and it has set August as a
tentative date.
The Ministry of Education said it hopes
that by that time the epidemic would have been contained enough to
allow pupils in the highly effected zones to gather at one place.
But with the outbreak having been declared “out of control”, it is unlikely that this date can be honoured.
The
latest government’s figures released on Tuesday showed the death toll
has rapidly increased to 39, from about 26 at the end of last week.
However,
a leaked document attributed to WHO and published by the bi-weekly
Freetown Politico newspaper cast an even more frightening reality of the
situation. It indicate 57 deaths.
The document also showed the geographical coverage of the outbreak is far wider than officially acknowledged.
Both
the government and WHO are yet to explain the discrepancy. The two,
along with those of the other countries, have also been the subjects of
criticism by Doctors Without Borders which earlier in the week alleged
the UN’s health agency was reluctant to rein in on governments which
were yet to fully appreciate the severity of the Ebola epidemic.
MSF,
as Doctors Without Borders is also known by its French acronym, called
for massive deployment of resources on the ground by both international
organisations and governments.
It said the outbreak was in over 60 locations making it impossible for its staff to cover the three countries.
Meanwhile,
a regional Health Ministers conference in Conakry by the three
countries this week ended with a pledge for “effective and coordinated”
response to the outbreak.
WHO is also planning one in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, earlier July.
In
the meantime, pressure continues to pile on Sierra Leone in particular
which is being blamed for the current spike in cases in the wider
region.http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Exams-cancelled-amid-Ebola-crisis/-/1066/2361790/-/jw3gy9z/-/index.html
