Sierra Leone's 365 Ebola deaths linked to healer who claimed she had cure

Sierra Leone’s ebola crisis has been linked to a healer who had claimed she possessed special powers to cure the deadly virus.  A top medical official, Mohamed Vandi, who was based in the crisis-struck Kenema district, told AFP that Ebola cases from Guinea started crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment as soon as news of the healer broke out…

 “She 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.

The nurses who lost their lives and those who got infected would never have gone in knowing that they would get infected,” Vandi, the district medical officer,’ Vandi said.

Mourners at the funeral of the healer was said to have prompted a chain reaction of sorts, and what was initially a more confined outbreak materialized into a severe epidemic.