– ‘We are all scared’ –
In Freetown, meanwhile, the tropical fever was the only topic of conversation.
“We are all scared because of the way Ebola is spreading, but we are taking all the necessary precautions,” said Waisu Gassama, 27, who works in the HIV department of the dilapidated, century old Connaught Hospital.
Outside the hospital, soldiers said they have been drafted in to guard doctors and nurses, many of whom have been targeted by angry mobs blaming modern medicine for exacerbating the epidemic.
Terror has gripped the impoverished west African countries, with harrowing tales have emerged of people being shunned by their villages as the virus fells those around them.
When AFP visited the Liberian village of Ballajah, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the capital Monrovia, 12 year old Fatu Sherrif had been locked away with her mother’s body without food and water for a week.
Her cries went unanswered as panicked residents fled the village when both her parents fell sick.
Fatu later died and her brother Barnie, 15, despite testing negative for Ebola, was left alone and hungry in an abandoned house.
“Nobody wants to come near me and they know — people told them that I don’t have Ebola,” he told AFP.
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