Worshipers Fill Churches To Pray Against Ebola

Cyriacus Izuekwe, Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta with Agency Report

People in Sierra Leone and Liberia filled churches on Sunday to seek deliverance from an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, defying official warnings to avoid public gatherings to contain an epidemic that has killed nearly 1,000 people in West Africa.

Reuters reports that, with their creaking healthcare systems completely overrun, Sierra Leone and Liberia have both declared states of emergency to tackle the highly contagious and incurable disease, which has also stricken neighbouring Guinea.

People still flocked to sing and pray at churches in Liberia’s ramshackle ocean-front capital Monrovia, many of them comparing Ebola to the brutal civil war that ravaged the country between 1989 and 2003, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.

“Everyone is so afraid,” said Martee Jones Seator at Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church. “Ebola is not going to shake our faith in any way … because we’ve been through difficult times.”

The WHO has said that the world’s worst outbreak of Ebola — with 1,779 cases and 962 deaths — will likely continue for months as the region’s healthcare systems struggle to cope. It has appealed urgently for funding and emergency medical staff.

“We are in trouble here. We are in trouble,” Reverend Marcus MacKay, dressed in a green gown, said before the altar. “But you know what? There is no way this devil is going to do its work!”

Though this outbreak was first identified in March in the remote forest region of southeastern Guinea, scientists have traced the first recorded case as far back as early December, to a 2-year-old boy near the town of Gueckedou.

In Sierra Leone, Bishop Abu Aiah Koroma of the evangelical Flaming Bible Church in Freetown said price hikes were destroying the nation’s economy, branding Ebola “a devil”.

Speaking amid chants of “Alleluia” and “Amen” from his packed church, Koroma called for penitence “to avert this plague from our country”.

Meanwhile, as members of the Catholic Church in Lagos, western Nigeria, have abandoned their traditional way of worship by way of hand shakes among the worshipers during mass to prevent the spread of Ebola virus, priests who celebrate mass now skip that aspect during masses in various churches.

Various Catholic churches visited by our reporter have stopped to observe that aspect of worship.

One of the churches visited on Sunday was St Peters Catholic Church, Ejigbo, where the two presiding priests, Rev. Father Mathew Ogunyase and Rev Father Olisa, skipped that aspect of worship.

Also at St Mary’s Catholic Church, that aspect was skipped and the congregation welcomed the development.

Also, in its bid to ensure that the Ebola disease does not spread to Ogun State, western Nigeria, the State Government has suspended hunting activities in the state.

The government urged hunters in the state to suspend their activities forthwith in the state as part of measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

Th state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs Ronke Sokefun, issued the statement in Abeokut, the state capital.

The Commissioner said that currently, Ebola virus counld be contracted at the human to human level, adding that her Ministry has placed respective officials on alert for quick intervention at the Animal-Human Interface with four dedicated toll free lines. The lines are: 08033371451, 08033794450, 08033892861, and 08025195494.

In a similar vein, the state government has stepped up security and surveillance along border areas.

Dr. Olaokun Soyinka, the State Commissioner for Health, made this known in Abeokuta while addressing newsmen.

He said that the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration has authorised further training of health workers, purchase of protective equipment for health workers and other agencies.