Health workers in Sierra Leone began combing the streets of Freetown for Ebola patients on Wednesday, moving house-to-house as the government launched a major operation to contain infections in West Africa's worst-hit country.
President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that, as part of "Operation Western Area Surge," travel between all parts of the country would be restricted and public gatherings would be restrained in the runup to Christmas.
An encounter in the Devil's Hole neighborhood just outside Freetown showed why the program was vital. Ibrahim Kamara sat in a discarded vehicle tire, his eyes glassy and his breath coming in gasps, as he tried to answer questions from Ebola surveillance officers.