© Samuel Aranda for the New York Times
The grave of Marion Seisay at King Tom Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Area residents say animals dig near the graves, creating dangers for the living.
The gravedigger hacked at the cemetery's dense undergrowth, clearing space for the day's Ebola victims. A burial team, in protective suits torn with gaping holes, arrived with fresh bodies.
The backs of the battered secondhand vans carrying the dead were closed with twisted, rusting wire. Bodies were dumped in new graves, and a worker in a short-sleeve shirt carried away the stretcher, wearing only plastic bags over his hands as protection. The outlook for the day at King Tom Cemetery was busy.
"We will need much more space," said James C. O. Hamilton, the chief gravedigger, as a colleague cleared the bush with his machete.
The Ebola epidemic is spreading rapidly in Sierra Leone's densely packed capital - and it may already be far worse than the authorities acknowledge.
Since the beginning of the outbreak more than six months ago, the Sierra Leone Health Ministry reported only 10 confirmed Ebola deaths here in Freetown, the capital of more than one million people, and its suburbs as of Sunday - a hopeful sign that this city, unlike the capital of neighboring Liberia, had been relatively spared the ravages of the outbreak.
But the bodies pouring in to the graveyard tell a different story. In the last eight days alone, 110 Ebola victims have been buried at King Tom Cemetery, according to the supervisor, Abdul Rahman Parker, suggesting an outbreak that is much more deadly than either the government or international health officials have announced.
Comment: Like most of Western culture the EPA has been dangerously corrupted by pathological individuals and their narcissistic agendas:
- EPA Program on children's toxic exposure flawed
Due to this blatant corruption it's vital to make sure one's diet is optimized for detoxing the dangerous chemicals loose in the environment: