This is the final part of publisher Gibril Koroma’s exclusive interview with Sierra Leone’s Resident Minister for the Eastern Region Honourable Maya Kaikai who is on a private visit in the Washington DC area.. We published the first part a few days ago and this is the second and final part.
In this final part the eloquent and articulate Minister talked to our publisher, who is based in Vancouver, Canada by telephone from Washington DC (see photo). He told us about how the Ebola virus entered Kailahun district, his home district and then spread to the rest of Sierra Leone,the problems he and other local leaders faced to mobilize and sensitize the people on the disease and the death of Dr. Sahid Kahn. Here is Honourable Maya Kaikai:
On how EVD entered Kailahun district
Ebola came to Kailahun district in this way: A prominent traditional healer or herbalist in Kissi-Teng chiefdom in Kailahun district was invited to go and heal some ebola patients in neighbouring Guinea where the disease was already spreading (March 2014-Editor). At the time most people in both countries knew nothing about the disease including the female traditional healer from Kissi-Teng. When she returned home she fell sick from the disease and died. The people who helped her during her illness also fell sick and died. People from far and wide who came to her funeral also contracted the disease, went home to their villages and later died, spreading the disease all over the district. Soon it started appearing in Kenema district too and the rest of the country.Like I said a lot of people including health professionals knew little or nothing about the disease at the time.
The social mobilization and sensitization problems he and others faced
When the disease hit our district we were totally unprepared in terms information and resources. But I decided to put my business activities aside and mobilized traditional leaders, community leaders, politicians and others to organize the people and tell them the little we knew about the disease. Unfortunately some politicians from the opposition SLPP party I will not name were telling the people a different story. They were saying it was a deliberate ploy by the ruling APC to decrease the number of voters in Kailahun which is an SLPP stronghold. They were telling this to the people everywhere including on radio and some people believed them and did not take precautions. The disease thus spread and spread.. Some persons even incited the people to burn down one of the medical stores but that’s something we will deal with later . It was a very difficult time for us, my brother, but thank God we gradually, as time went on, convinced the people that EVD was real and educated them on how to take precautions. At the time only local leaders including myself and the government of Sierra Leone were handling the fight until Medecins Sans Frontieres came on board.They were staying at my hotel in Kailahun, Luawa Resort. I gave a 30 percent discount to all medical personnel, dignitaries and foreign workers staying at my hotel in Kailahun and the other one in Kenema.
On the death of Dr. Sahid Kahn.
The late Dr. Kahn, who was heading the Lassa Fever unit in Kenema was loved by everybody in both Kenema and Kailahun districts. He was like a people’s doctor, very approachable, kind and helpful. He even gave money to needy people out of his own pocket. He contracted the disease when one of his drivers told him he was not feeling well and that he had a headache and fever. Remember, those were the early stages of the disease and it had not yet spread in Kenema like in Kailahun. So Dr. Kahn used the back of his hand to ascertain the man’s temperature. People who were there said Dr. Kahn later said: "Oh, I have made a mistake, I shouldn’t have touched that man." So he immediately started to self-medicate and later asked to be taken to the Kailahun Treatment Centre where he died. People were crying all over the two districts and the rest of the country when they heard about his death. In fact his death significantly made people to take ebola seriously. It convinced even deniers and sobered them up. When President Koroma visited Kailahun and heard that Dr. Kahn had passed away, he wept bitterly. I was with him; that was the first time in my life I saw a Head of State cry. I did my best to comfort him. Losing Dr. Kahn was a national tragedy, my brother.
Photo credit: Pasco Temple.
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