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Ebola: 'In decades of humanitarian work, I've never seen such suffering'
The Ebola outbreak in Liberia demands global help, says an aid worker
The Observer, Saturday 13 September 2014
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I am supervising the suspect tent, which has room for 25 patients who are likely to have Ebola ? 80-90% of those we test have the virus....
In one afternoon last week I watched five seemingly fit, healthy, young men die. I gave the first a bottle of oral rehydration solution and came back with another for the second. In the half a minute or so in which I had been away the first man died, his bottle of water spilt across the floor. The four others followed in quick succession.
We sometimes have to hold back tears but try to offer patients all the comfort that we can ? especially if they are in their last moments....
My colleagues in logistics are doing a fantastic job of building new extensions and hopefully, in the next week, we will increase our capacity further still. In the meantime, we are only open to admit patients for a couple of hours each day before all our beds are full again...
Unfortunately, people die before they even reach our centre. It is a difficult and dangerous procedure to remove a body from a vehicle and the team often has to do this many times a day. We have been forced to order an incinerator from Europe because the local crematorium cannot cope with the number of bodies.
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I believe MSF is doing a fantastic job, but we are only able to care for a minority of the people in Monrovia who have Ebola. We also work in the north of the country, but every county is now reporting cases and we have absolutely no capacity to respond.
It is extremely sad to see the indifference of the international community with regards to this epidemic...
The author is an aid worker for M?decins Sans Fronti?res who wished to remain anonymous
The Ebola outbreak in Liberia demands global help, says an aid worker
The Observer, Saturday 13 September 2014
...
I am supervising the suspect tent, which has room for 25 patients who are likely to have Ebola ? 80-90% of those we test have the virus....
In one afternoon last week I watched five seemingly fit, healthy, young men die. I gave the first a bottle of oral rehydration solution and came back with another for the second. In the half a minute or so in which I had been away the first man died, his bottle of water spilt across the floor. The four others followed in quick succession.
We sometimes have to hold back tears but try to offer patients all the comfort that we can ? especially if they are in their last moments....
My colleagues in logistics are doing a fantastic job of building new extensions and hopefully, in the next week, we will increase our capacity further still. In the meantime, we are only open to admit patients for a couple of hours each day before all our beds are full again...
Unfortunately, people die before they even reach our centre. It is a difficult and dangerous procedure to remove a body from a vehicle and the team often has to do this many times a day. We have been forced to order an incinerator from Europe because the local crematorium cannot cope with the number of bodies.
...
I believe MSF is doing a fantastic job, but we are only able to care for a minority of the people in Monrovia who have Ebola. We also work in the north of the country, but every county is now reporting cases and we have absolutely no capacity to respond.
It is extremely sad to see the indifference of the international community with regards to this epidemic...
The author is an aid worker for M?decins Sans Fronti?res who wished to remain anonymous
