October 17, 2014 Senesi Fawundu: The letter below was received on October 15, 2014, in response to a request from the WRF for a report and for prayer requests.

Dear Dr. Samuel Logan:

Greetings in the name of the Lord!

We at “The World Reformed Fellowship of Sierra Leone in Bo, Sierra Leone” wish to express our thanks and appreciation to Dr. Sam Logan for having our membership at heart.  Our membership has grown tremendously over the years and we are happy that the Lord is with us every day. With our faith in the Lord, the 206 members of our fellowship are still alive and we are confident, we will survive this epidemic.

The Ebola virus is spreading at a faster rate in Sierra Leone like the other affected countries in West Africa. On September 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that the virus is spreading exponentially across the country. The President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has termed the spread of the virus a global health crisis and urges more international help. He said these extraordinary challenges require extraordinary measures.  The Minister of Information, Mr. Alpha Kanu, has described the Ebola outbreak a serious threat to Sierra Leone’s existence. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention projects the disease to infect about 20,000 people. The Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) said this Ebola outbreak is the biggest ever known. Barrack Obama, President of the United States has confirmed that the disease is out of control and spreading exponentially, thus ordering the deployment of 3,000 U.S military personnel in the West African countries being hit by the virus.

Given the enormous rate at which the virus is spreading, Sierra Leone and other severely affected countries must quickly adopt a more robust proactive crisis management approach to contain and eradicate the disease in a timely manner. A plan is proposed to help eradicate the virus from Sierra Leone and the other affected countries within the next four months. This plan will complement the already existing reactionary approach currently being taken to fight the disease at the hospital level. Ebola must be fought, contained, and eradicated at the community level as a proactive approach. This approach will reduce or eliminate the pressure being put on the inadequate Ebola treatment centres and other medical facilities that are treating patients being infected at the community level. In simple terms, the community is the source of the virus and therefore all efforts must be made to eradicate it at that level.

Poverty is a key driver of the exponential spreading of the disease. For example, to date, most affluent individuals in Sierra Leone have not been affected by the virus. Apart from a small number of affluent medical practitioners who are at risk by fighting the disease, there are little to no deaths being reported among the well-offs in the country. However, about 912 impoverished Sierra Leoneans have died from the disease and thousands more are being infected at a faster rate. A gap analysis of infection data between the poor and the well-off shows that, affluent Sierra Leoneans are successfully fighting the disease because they are using affordable personal protective equipment (PPEs), while the impoverished individuals are not using those due to the lack of purchasing powers.

If implemented, this plan will help to eradicate Ebola from Sierra Leone and other countries within the next four (4) months by proactively empowering impoverished communities to eradicate the virus before it reaches the hospitals.

Sierra Leone is the second country hit the hardest of all the countries in West Africa that have ever been affected by the Ebola virus since it emerged in May, 2014. As of September 10, 2014, about 930 persons have died from the disease and more than 2,415 persons are infected. The disease entered Sierra Leone from Liberia on May 22, 2014 and caused many deaths by July 26, 2014. From July 26, 2014 to September 10, 2014, the disease has exponentially spread across Sierra Leone jumping by 913% from 129 to 912 deaths. The WHO is predicting the disease to continue to spread exponentially. Unless a plan such as this is implemented, the WHO approximation could be correct based on the analyses of the following factors:

Poverty – A Key Driver of Ebola

A major driver of the spread of the virus in Sierra Leone is severe poverty. The country ranked the one of the poorest in the world in 2013 in terms of GDP per capita. According to the United Nations, about 83.9% (the 1st and worst in the world) of Sierra Leone’s 6 million people live on less than $2.00 per day. Also, about 70-85% of the country’s workforce is unemployed. Additionally, most impoverished families in Sierra Leone are often compelled to pull their resources together by living in clusters of about 10-15 persons per household, thus making it very easy for them to contract and spread the disease at a faster rate.

This dismal poverty statistics suggests that 5 Million of the country’s 6 million people lack the income required to buy the necessary PPEs and other medical supplies needed to protect themselves from the disease. Therefore, they are highly vulnerable to contracting the disease and spreading it at an exponential rate as suggested by the WHO.

Because of Sierra Leone’s vulnerability and the potential to spread the disease at an exponential rate, the government of the country must take drastic measures to eradicate the disease from the country within a timely manner. Consequently, this proposal is recommending that the government launch and implement a house-to-house search community based strategy to quickly identify, isolate, contain, report, and monitor all incidence of the virus within the community. The plan is also calling on the government to take full ownership as well as completely financing the cost of the eradication of the disease. This means that the government must adequately supply each household with hand sanitizers, disposable hand gloves, soap, Detol, hand sanitizers and  food, etc., and other items intended to protect people from contracting and spreading the disease.

The Closure of Hospitals & Clinics; Medical Misdiagnosis; Fear

The Closure of Hospitals & Clinics: Many hospitals within Sierra Leone are either voluntarily closed or operating at low capacities due to the Ebola crisis. Most of these hospitals are indicating that they do not have the requisite medical supplies to help fight the disease. Therefore, they have opted to voluntarily close their doors for fear of being infected by the disease in the line of service. As a result, people that are suspected of contracting the disease are left with no choice but to return to their homes and in the process infecting others.

MSF and other credible medical organizations currently helping to fight the disease in Sierra Leone  have indicated that treatment centres are filling faster than expected, thus leaving no room to accommodate other infected people. As a result, people that are been tested positive are returning to their crowded homes, riding in crowded taxis or buses, and exponentially infecting others.

Medical Misdiagnosis:

Due to the closure of many hospitals and clinics in Sierra Leone resulting from this Ebola crisis, many Sierra Leoneans are not getting the proper medical treatments that they would normally receive in the absence of this crisis. Prior to this Ebola crisis, Sierra Leoneans were observed to incur many ailments, including malaria, cholera, fever, headaches, etc. Because these ailments share the same symptoms as the Ebola disease, many Sierra Leoneans experiencing any ailment are now being misdiagnosed as Ebola patients and therefore being refused at most medical facilities. As a result, these people return to their homes and infect others if it turns out that they are truly infected with the virus. Because more than 3.6 million impoverished Sierra Leoneans are being refused medical services, the Ebola virus is expected to spread exponentially due to infected individuals being left at home to be cared for by their families and communities without the medical expertise.

Fear:

Ebola is being spread exponentially due to fear. Most impoverished Sierra Leoneans that are ill are not seeking medical attention due to fear of being misdiagnosed or stigmatized as Ebola victims. Also, because the healthcare delivery system of the country has collapsed to a larger extent, there are no medical examinations available to quickly test patients for Ebola versus other ailments. As a result, family and community members are stepping up to provide support and care to their sick family members or friends, thus getting infected in the process. Additionally, many ill patients tend to hide their sickness for fear of being stigmatized or for other reasons. By the time their situation is brought to the community attention, that person has either died or has infected others exponentially.

The Ebola crisis has become a national security issue. Therefore, the government of Sierra Leone must move as quickly as possible to subsidize the operation of some hospitals and clinics to build their capacities to help eradicate the disease. The government must also ensure that no one is turned away from any medical facility.

We ask you our brethren to pray for our country, Sierra Leone in general and for our membership of The World Reformed Fellowship in Sierra Leone in Bo in particular for the Lord’s protection in these tumid times of our history.

As members of this fellowship, we kindly ask our brethren all over the world to help us here in Sierra Leone. Nothing is too small in the eyes of the Lord. We need logistics, supplies and food to help our frightened population.

My name is Hon. Senesi Fawundu. I am the founder and head of The World Reformed Fellowship of Sierra Leone in Bo City. I am also an elected member of the Sierra Leone House of Parliament representing a constituency in Pujehun District in Southern Sierra Leone. I was elected to parliament in November, 2012, under the Sierra Leone Peoples Party.

In the service of the Lord!

Senesi Fawundu World Reformed Fellowship of Sierra Leone 100 Koribondo Highway P.O. Box 171 Bo City Tel: +232 76 639755 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.