Over 300 Ebola deaths traced back to a healer in Sierra Leone

Source: http://www.enca.com/sierra-leones-ebola-deaths-traced-back-one-healer

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - It has laid waste to the tribal chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, leaving hundreds dead, but the Ebola crisis began with just one healer's claims to special powers.

The outbreak need never have spread from Guinea, health officials  told  AFP, except for a herbalist in the remote eastern border village of Sokoma.

"She was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola.  People from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment," Mohamed Vandi, the top medical official in the hard-hit district of Kenema, told AFP.

"She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the other towns also  got infected."

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