No Christmas in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is Muslim country in which a quarter are Christian, but there will be no Christmas festivities this year as government authorities have imposed a national lockdown to stop the spread of hemmoragic fever. Sierra Leone's Ebola virus outbreak now surpasses Liberia's in the number of reported cases. The country's defense minister told citizens the ban on celebrations will be enforced by the army. Many travel from the capital Freetown to their home villages to be with family and friends during the holiday season. The World Health Organization estimates the virus has infected 18,000 people in the three west African countries--Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone--most affected by the pandemic. There have been a few reported cases in Mali and Nigeria. Officially 6,533 were killed by the disease; the actual death toll is probably much higher. Health workers discovered more unreported bodies in the remote diamond mining district of Kono piled up in a cordoned off section of a field hospital. A clinic trial of an Ebola vaccine has been suspended in Geneva as all fifty-nine voluteers complained of joint pain in the hands and feet. The human safety trial is scheduled to resume in the New Year as the effects are "benign and temporary" according to study doctors.