Sparsely-equipped hospitals and beleaguered staff battle a disease whose victims outpace the number of beds being built
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/ebola-sierra-leone-fight-who-disease-fight
All over Freetown, buildings, vehicles and people are being commandeered in the fight against Ebola.
snip
Every ambulance is now an Ebola ambulance in Sierra Leone?s capital where an invisible malevolent force has taken hold, causing fear and untold grief as the dying and the dead infect families and friends in their wake.
large snip
But the tireless work of those living in Sierra Leone is not proving enough to catch the disease whose victims easily outpace the number of beds being built.
Between fielding calls in another hectic day at the Connaught, Johnson says a change in mentality is needed to bridge the chasm between grand plans hatched in Washington, New York and London and the urgent needs on the ground.
e says he is impressed with the ?joined up thinking of British government? efforts with a 100-bed facility due to open in the suburb of Kerry Town and five more hospitals scheduled to open before the end of November.
But while locals can convert buildings within days, the British hospitals are taking two months to build and there is scepticism that the remaining facilities will be built in four weeks. ?Time is against us. Kerry Town is part of the solution but it?s not going to be enough any more,? says Johnson. ?We?ve moved from one or two cases a day to more than 30 cases a day in Freetown, and by next month maybe we will be getting 60, 70, 80 positive cases a day, so that 100-bed unit in Kerry Town will be full in 48 hours,? he says.
In the new command centre in Freetown there is a sense that the management, at least, of the epidemic in the capital is under control. Burials are being completed within 24 hours. But there is little to celebrate.
snip
Much more at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/ebola-sierra-leone-fight-who-disease-fight
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/ebola-sierra-leone-fight-who-disease-fight
All over Freetown, buildings, vehicles and people are being commandeered in the fight against Ebola.
snip
Every ambulance is now an Ebola ambulance in Sierra Leone?s capital where an invisible malevolent force has taken hold, causing fear and untold grief as the dying and the dead infect families and friends in their wake.
large snip
But the tireless work of those living in Sierra Leone is not proving enough to catch the disease whose victims easily outpace the number of beds being built.
Between fielding calls in another hectic day at the Connaught, Johnson says a change in mentality is needed to bridge the chasm between grand plans hatched in Washington, New York and London and the urgent needs on the ground.
e says he is impressed with the ?joined up thinking of British government? efforts with a 100-bed facility due to open in the suburb of Kerry Town and five more hospitals scheduled to open before the end of November.
But while locals can convert buildings within days, the British hospitals are taking two months to build and there is scepticism that the remaining facilities will be built in four weeks. ?Time is against us. Kerry Town is part of the solution but it?s not going to be enough any more,? says Johnson. ?We?ve moved from one or two cases a day to more than 30 cases a day in Freetown, and by next month maybe we will be getting 60, 70, 80 positive cases a day, so that 100-bed unit in Kerry Town will be full in 48 hours,? he says.
In the new command centre in Freetown there is a sense that the management, at least, of the epidemic in the capital is under control. Burials are being completed within 24 hours. But there is little to celebrate.
snip
Much more at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/ebola-sierra-leone-fight-who-disease-fight