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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Sierra Leone News: Ebola survivor infects wife to death



In Thoradu Village, Kissy Teng, Kailahun district an Ebola survivor, Siaka, is alleged to have infected his wife, Pewah, through sex.
This information was disclosed by a member of the Kailahun Women in Governance Network (KWiGN), Juliet Scott, in a telephone interview during the weekend.
According to Madam Scott, the Ebola survivor Siaka, after contacting the virus was taken to the Kailahun treatment centre, where he received proper medication from the Medical experts and after being discharged, he was given the necessary precautionary messages including some quantity of condoms to protect his partner, if he wants to have sex with her.
She maintained that according to the expert advice, the virus stays in the semen of men and in the breast milk of women, so if the men want to have sex with their partners, they should use condom to protect the women and that the women should not breast feed until after three months, explaining that Siaka refused to follow the instructions to protect his wife and she was left with no option but to obey her husband.
“Pewah only realised she had been infected, after two days when she started exhibiting some of the symptoms,” she recalled, adding that they took her to the treatment centre where she passed away, as it was too late for the medical expert to administer treatment to her, disclosing that the women are extremely vulnerable towards the Ebola virus.
According to the President of KWiGN, Madam Lucy Gondor, this situation is very unfortunate at this particular time, when the Government and other partners are doing all they could in sensitizing the people about the preventive measures about the disease, explaining that survivors should be role models in society, as they should be the ones telling people about the realities of the disease rather than infecting others.
She disclosed that on the area of new infection cases reported in the District, one was as a result of a young man who was tested positive and his wife went ahead and identified her husband’s girl-friend and the girl-friend also identified another girl friend as all their houses had been quarantined.
By Alhaji M. Kamara
Monday October 13, 2014