According to a top medical officer in Sierra Leone Mohamed Vandi, a woman who claimed she had powers to help heal people infected with Ebola triggered the major outbreak.
The official tells AFP that the outbreak spread from Guinea because of a herbalist in the remote eastern border village of Sokoma, Eastern Sierra Leone.
“She was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola. Cases from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment,” he said.
“She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the other towns got infected.”, he added.
The report claims that the herbalist’s mourners started a chain reaction of infection, deaths, funeral and more infections.
Vandi further said that, “The nurses who lost their lives and those who got infected would never have gone in knowing that they would get infected. We are fighting a battle that is new. Ebola is new here and we are all learning as we go along.”
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