UK team races to stop disease, in Sierra Leone

As families desperately clawed through red earth and debris that had buried their communities within just a few hours, another fear was already taking hold.

Gushing muddy waters had poured into poor communities, killing at least 500 people, leaving many more homeless and wrecking what were already very basic water and sanitation systems. Although tragedy has already struck, things could get a lot worse.

"The floods and landslides have caused damage to water and sanitation systems in affected areas thus resulting in contamination of open water sources, and also created possible breeding sites for vectors like mosquitoes," World Health Organization Sierra Leone officer in charge, Dr Alexander Chimbaru, said.

Within four days of the disaster, the Sierra Leonean government had called on the new UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) to deploy to Freetown and help them prevent a major outbreak of disease.

UCJ, UNILORIN ©