On a barren hillside outside the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, one Alieu Mansaray put on a brave face as strangers in full plastic bodysuits lowered his father's body into the grave. Hi 71-year-old father had dies of stroke, Everyone knew that But in a country where the highly contagious Ebola virus continues to take lives, this is a sacrifice that Sierra Leoneans have come to accept.
Mansaray explained that, in normal time, the body would have been washed, dressed and perfumed before being taken to the local mosque for prayers. Then the family would have taken him to a graveyard near their home in the city's eastern suburbs and laid him to rest in a white cotton shroud.
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| Ebola Responders ready to bury an Ebola Victim |
"It's really hard. When someone dies you want to bury them in a special way. But this is the law, so we do it," he said. "I am a patriotic man, and if we want to reach zero new Ebola cases its important they keep doing this."
The rules are simple. All bodies - not just those suspected of carrying Ebola - should be buried within 24 hours by a trained Ebola burial team wearing full protective equipment in an authorized burial. Rigid safety precautions are outlined for every step of the procedure.
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| an officer examined a burial permit |
"Universal safe, dignified medical burial will conducted on all bodies, nationwide; there are no exceptions," according to the burial guidelines put out by the National Ebola Response Centre, the body in charge of directing the fight against the disease in Sierra Leone. The country remains under a state of emergence, and President Ernest Bai Koroma has been clear that anyone who doesn't comply with the rules will be arrested and charged.
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