In the twilight of the
first half of 2014, Sierra Leone was hit for the first time by the Ebola virus,
unknown to its people and healthcare. Sierra Leone was not the only country
assailed by the mysterious virus. Other West African nations of Liberia, Guinea
and Nigeria also recorded cases of the virus. There were more than 30,000
recorded cases of infections and a total of about half of those cases succumbed
to the virus in the said West African nations. It took Sierra Leone more than a
year and half plus loss of about 4,000 of its people to get to zero infection
from the inception of the outbreak. Experts and activists opined that very weak
health infrastructures combined with its then ailing economy accounted for
Sierra Leone’s highest recorded deaths. But it was not only the battered health
systems which boosted the spread of the virus, international response to the
outbreak also exacerbated the infections and fatalities. The Guardian Newspaper
reports [1] that:
Chaotic meetings with local ministers and
health officials coupled with a dysfunctional local government and complacency
in the west engendered a hellish downward spiral.
The sharpest criticism is levelled at the WHO,
which was slow to declare the Ebola outbreak an international emergency, but
also failed to heed early alarm calls made by medics who were working in
horrific conditions in the Kenema hospital.
The tardy response to
the outbreak in Sierra Leone was engendered by the lack of resources, human and
artificial, to combat the virus. In 2014, Sierra Leone had fewer than 500
trained medical doctors servicing a population of more than seven million. Its
hospitals and clinics were as few and far between as they were grossly
under-equipped to respond to any kind of disease outbreak. But in addition to
the dearth in its healthcare delivery, donations and aid funds which were
pumped in millions of US Dollars were siphoned off by local leadership. The
government audit unit uncovered about USD14M which were funds which could not
be accounted for during the efforts to beat the virus. Despite the damning
audit evidence of suspected misappropriation of direly needed funds, no public
official has been prosecuted for the missing Ebola funds to date.
Although there are ongoing commission of inquiry processes which seek to probe
into the missing Ebola funds, there is yet to be any findings or
recommendations for prosecutions or restitution.
The emergency measures
introduced by the government of Sierra Leone in consultation with international
agencies and partners, though unpunctual, substantially helped to stem the
rapid spread of the virus. On 7 November 2015, Sierra Leone declared its
territory free from the Ebola virus after 42 days of continuous zero infection.
The human and social cost of the havoc wreaked on the nation of Sierra Leone
might never be quantified as would the unaccounted funds be irrecoverable. By
the beat out of the virus, Sierra Leone’s medical personnel which was already
in short supply was decimated. A dozen medical doctors, amongst them being,
unarguably one of Sierra Leone’s leading medical doctors, Dr. Victor Willoughby
lost their saves in a bid to defending their nation attacked by a deadly virus.
While there was a cessation of the spread of infection, it was just the
beginning of another episode of ordeal for the more than four thousand Sierra
Leonean Ebola survivors. The government of Sierra Leone, as usual, pledged
nothing shy of adequate facilities and allocation of state resources to Ebola
survivors. The pitch of its promise was good, but as the years wore on,
survivors’ anticipation of sufficient resources to attend to their post-Ebola
health and other social challenges dwindle.
In January 2018, two
unnamed Ebola survivors together with the Centre for Accountability and Rule of
Law (CARL), brought an action against the Government of Sierra Leone in the
ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. Sierra Leone is a signatory to the Treaty
establishing the Economic Community of West African States and its protocol on
the establishment of an ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. Amongst the mandate
of the court is to hear and determine cases of human right violations by
individuals of state parties. The suit prays for a declaration that poor
structures within the healthcare sector, delayed response on the part of the
government of Sierra Leone to the Ebola outbreak and massive misappropriation
of funds/donations by local politicians accounted for the massive infections
and deaths. The Plaintiffs, therefore have urged the ECOWAS court to hold that
the right to life and health of not only the two Plaintiffs but also of all
those survivors who were in similar situations were violated by the Government
of Sierra Leone. There are no socio-economic rights guaranteed in the
Constitution of Sierra Leone but the state of Sierra Leone is a signatory to a
number of leading international human rights instruments which provide and
guarantee the right to life, health and wellbeing of the peoples of state
parties. Therefore, since a declaration of violation of fundamental social
rights might be an uphill task in the municipal courts of Sierra Leone if not
impossible to obtain, recourse had to be had to an international court which
the state has signed up to, in this case the ECOWAS Community
Court.
The state of Sierra
Leone promised its more than 4,000 survivors pyscho-social support and an
amelioration of the health systems in Sierra Leone to combat any future
outbreak of the Ebola virus or any similar virus. Sadly, more than three years
now, the healthcare system is as unprepared as it was, to deal with any medical
and humanitarian crisis such as the one ushered in by the Ebola Virus Disease.
The health complications of survivors subsist and their hopes based on the
commitment of the government of Sierra Leone linger though worn out. It’s been
four years since the end of the Ebola Virus in Sierra Leone, but there is no
specialized unit for Ebola survivors yet. They continue to battle with and
endure myriad health complications and nothing more than the free medical
services which previously were only provided to pregnant women, lactating
mothers and infants have been extended to Ebola survivors. Survivors’
complaints of sudden loss of vision, infertility, erectile dysfunction,
prolonged fatigue, mental issues and undiminished social exclusion and stigmatization
continue to rest on deaf ears. With these lingering issues come huge social
cost on survivors’ livelihood. Such costs unbearable by their economic
distress.
Sierra Leone has
scooped the victory in the battle against the scourge of Ebola brought on its
people but is losing the war on its survivors. The enduring agony of survivors
remain a constant reminder of the defects in the health care system of Sierra
Leone, which have all suddenly re-emerged. The signs of a likely national
catastrophe in a magnitude similar or greater than the consequences of the
Ebola virus are all too numerous. Unfortunately, the very indifference to the
signs, which stoked the spread of the Ebola virus, have returned, like it only
took a snappy break. The Ebola outbreak exposed the failings in the health
sector of Sierra Leone but may have failed to prick the conscience of the
nation to address the systemic failures and transform health institutions in
order to combat such outbreaks. Sadly, the status quo ante Ebola has re-emerged
and oblivion of the huge social and human costs has set in so suddenly. For
survivors, they are left with diminished hopes and heightened health
complications. The nation may not be recording any more infections for over
three years now, but it is recording huge failures in responding to the plight
of Ebola survivors.
About the author:
_Augustine S. Marrah graduated from the Sierra
Leone Law School top of class in 2009. The following year he obtained a
Masters’ degree in Human Rights Law and democratisation at the University of
Pretoria, South Africa where he was also awarded first prize in the annual
debate competition at the Faculty of Law._
_Augustine is the immediate past secretary of
the General Legal Council —the statutory body that inter alia admits persons to
practice law in Sierra Leone—and its disciplinary committee. He is also a
Senior Partner at one of Sierra Leone’s emerging leading firms of solicitors—KMK
Solicitors. He is co-counsel in the ongoing litigation at the ECOWAS Community
Court of Justice against the State of Sierra Leone on behalf of the two
survivors and Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law.
