On Ebola front line, first glimpse of end to epidemic
By Emma Farge and Umaru Fofana FREETOWN (Reuters) – Here at the front line of the Ebola epidemic, the tide seems to be turning against the disease. Police halt vehicles at checkpoints in the tumble-down streets to check temperatures, while posters proclaim in the local Krio language: "Togeda we go stop ebola." Aid workers also report success in changing behavior in rural areas, notably discouraging people from burial rituals involving direct contact with the dead – a major source of transmission. As a result, transmission of the hemorrhagic fever has slowed sharply in the West African country, which has recorded more than 10,000 cases since May. There were just 184 new cases in the week to Jan. 11 – the lowest in five months. More than half of beds in treatment centers across Sierra Leone are now empty – a stark contrast from a peak in November when centers in Freetown overflowed, patients waited days for ambulances and bodies were unburied, or interred secretly in backyards.
