Female herbalist caused EBOLA disease outbreak –Sierra Leonean officials

Female herbalist caused EBOLA disease outbreak –Sierra Leonean
officials

A healer in Sierra Leone claiming to have special powers to cure
the Ebola Virus Disease has been identified as the cause of the
deadly outbreak that has left hundreds of people dead in some
West African countries, including Nigeria.
Sierra Leonean health officials said the outbreak of the EVD in the
country was made worse by the female herbalist in the remote
eastern border village of Sokoma, Agence France-Presse reports.
“She (the herbalist) was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola.
Cases from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment.
She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the
other towns got infected,” Mohamed Vandi, the top medical official
in the hard-hit district of Kenema, told AFP.
The herbalist’s mourners fanned out across the rolling hills of the
Kissi tribal chiefdoms, starting a chain reaction of infections,
deaths, funerals and more infections.
A worrying outbreak turned into a major epidemic when the virus
finally hit Kenema city on June 17.
An ethnically-diverse, Krio-speaking city of 190,000, Kenema
already has the highest incidence of Lassa fever, another viral
haemorrhagic disease, in the world.
Last week Saturday, the founder of the Synagogue Church of All
Nations in Lagos, T.B. Joshua, one of Nigeria’s controversial and
richest preachers according to Forbes, announced that he sent
more than 4,000 bottles of his powerful anointing water, which
users claimed had worked many miracles, to help victims of the
deadly EVD in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“Prophet T.B. Joshua announced in The SCOAN Saturday Prayer
Line that 4,000 bottles of New Anointing Water have arrived in the
nation of Sierra Leone, alongside $50,000 in humanitarian aid, to
support the ongoing crises there caused by the disease of Ebola,”
stated a post on the Facebook page of TB Joshua Ministries.
“The Anointing Water was sent in a private jet that cost an
additional $50,000 to charter, making $100,000 given by Prophet
T.B. Joshua and the Emmanuel TV Partners to reach out to the
troubled nation,” it added.
Joshua claimed on the church’s website that God was powerfully
expressing himself through the “Anointing Water” he distributed.
“By using the Anointing Water, you are symbolically setting yourself
apart for Jesus Christ’s special attention as you pray in faith. I
mean, you are positioned for mercy, favour, healing, deliverance,
blessing, prosperity and fruitfulness,” Joshua said.
The virus is highly infectious through exposure to bodily fluids, and
its early rapid spread in West Africa was attributed in part to
relatives touching victims during traditional funeral rites.