Western Area Surge Gets Under Way Against Ebola In Freetown

The Western Area surge got under way on Wednesday (17 December) in Freetown in an effort to contain the alarming rise in registered Ebola cases in Sierra Leone.

The increasingly high transmission rates reported in recent weeks, lead the Government of Sierra Leone and UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) to mount the surge response.

The emphasis of the surge will be on increased safe burials, ambulance dispatching and quarantine activities, as well as adding additional social mobilizers into communities.

This social mobilizer team is being dispatched to the Susan's Bay slum, a densely populated and extremely poor area of Freetown.

Maada's team visits Bolo Abu Mansaroi's home, which was placed under quarantine after one person in the home was infected.

In another nearby home, nine people died and the rest of the family fled the area.

Sierra Leone, one of the three hardest-hit countries, together with Guinea and Liberia, is among the least developed countries in the world. Overcrowding and dangerous hygienic conditions in slums such as Susan's bay are a factor for the high transmission of the Ebola virus, as well as diarrhoea, malaria, tuberculosis and cholera infections.

At the nearby Handicap Youths Development Centre residents were placed under quarantine after a baby who arrived with his mother from a rural area died and tested positive for the virus.

After 4 days of quarantine and 17 to go, residents are unnerved, but trying to stay positive.

SHOTLIST:
14 DECEMBER 2014, FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

British Council Western Area Emergency Response Centre exterior
Various shots, British military and local staff notating daily cases on board
Various shots, Sierra Leone military staff rolling area maps
Western Area emergency response advisor Victoria Parkinson talking to British military staff
Social mobilizers with their motorcycles awaiting assignment
"Kick Out Ebola" painted on motorcycle tank
Social mobilizers riding on a motorbike through market
Pig walking through Susan's Bay slum while social milliners talk to local people
From kids swimming in the bay to kids playing atop a heap of garbage
Children dancing atop a heap of garbage
Susan's Bay slum
Social mobilizers visiting the home of Bolo Abu Mansaroi, under quarantine
From children to social mobilizer notating daily cases
Social mobilizer notating daily cases
From mural to social mobilizers visiting home where nine people died
Social mobilizer asking residents about their health
Social mobilizer talking to residents
From girl to narrow alley
Kids and animals walking through garbage
Handicap Youths Development Centre building under quarantine
Residents behind quarantine line ribbon
Residents laughing behind quarantine line ribbon

SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Parkinson, Africa Government Initiative (AGI) Western Area Emergency Response Advisor:
"We are dispatching burial teams, we are dispatching ambulances to pick up sick patients, and we are ensuring that the quarantine activities that need to go into effect when someone has been confirmed EVD take effect. So, with the surge starting, what that means is that we are adding additional social mobilizers into communities."

SOUNDBITE (English) Maada M. Rogers, Western Area Disease Surveillance Officer:
"This is a very densely populated community. For us to have one case here, it means we have to increase on our surveillance, and that's exactly what we are doing now. We have removed up to five cases here. We are visiting here again today to see if there are more cases and then we can know what to do."

DURATION: 02:44