Ebola outbreak is a horror we cannot ignore [column by Red Cross' Amanda McClelland, working in Sierra Leone]

[Donners]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/op...ns-cannot-ignore/story-fni0ffsx-1227044297584

When I first arrived in Sierra Leone five weeks ago, I travelled with the local Red Cross to the infection ?hot zone? near the Guinea and Liberia borders. The volunteers were tired but motivated.

Someone asked them: ?Why volunteer to manage dead bodies?? A volunteer quickly answered, ?If we don?t do it, who will??

Recently I was talking to the deputy matron of the hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone?s third biggest town. Suddenly I heard wailing and crying. Calmly, the matron told me their laboratory technician had just died. Ten minutes later, another health worker tested positive. Total: 33 infected.

The deputy matron has worked 93 days straight while 23 colleagues have died. Yet she is still here, for the same reasons as the Red Cross volunteer was: if she doesn?t do it, who will?

...

I am here to coordinate the international Red Cross response to the Ebola outbreak. Somehow, amid the fear and confusion, 2500 community members have volunteered to help contain the disease. Tragically, dead bodies are the most infectious, which is why so many families are dying and why burying the dead is such hot, dangerous work. I have lost many nights sleep thinking about the volunteers and if they should really be working in this emergency.

...

Ebola is a public health ?perfect storm? in countries recovering from years of war. Governments and lead agencies could have been quicker to respond but this outbreak, in this region, is unprecedented. Fortunately, there is mounting recognition of the scale of this health emergency and the broader humanitarian crisis unravelling.

The international community has a responsibility to prevent the deaths and suffering of millions more in the weeks and months to come.