Health-care
workers in a village east of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone,
came under attack Saturday while attempting to bury five victims of the
deadly Ebola virus disease, according to a police official cited by the Associated Press.
Nevertheless, the attacks in the village of Waterloo did not derail a
government effort to contain the virus through house-to-house
inspections. Volunteers carrying out the inspections have reported that,
by and large, most Sierra Leoneans have obeyed government orders to
remain at home through Sunday evening.
Sierra Leone, a small, impoverished West African nation
seeking to emerge from decades of war and instability, has been among
the countries most
badly affected by the virus: Ebola has caused 560 deaths in the country, roughly one-fifth of the 2,600 fatalities registered in the region, as AP reported.
In their attempt to prevent the virus from spreading,
government officials throughout the region have struggled to overcome
insufficient medical equipment, poor transportation infrastructure and,
occasionally, intransigence in the populations themselves. BBC News
reported Thursday that villagers in Guinea, a nation bordering Sierra
Leone, slaughtered eight Ebola aid workers in cold blood.
Ebola is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, with
roughly one-half of those infected in West Africa since December having
died. U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to rally support for
combating Ebola when world leaders gather in New York for the United
Nations General Assembly meeting this week. And, last week, the
president announced he would dispatch 3,000 American troops to the
region, marking the first time a U.S. president has promised military
assistance to fight a disease outbreak in Africa.
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