Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/ebola-doctors-with-no-rubber-gloves-1408142137
For Want of Gloves, Ebola Doctors Die
On the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, health-care workers believe its toll on their own staffs could be mitigated if only they had enough basic hospital supplies such as gloves
By
Drew Hinshaw
Updated Aug. 15, 2014 7:17 p.m. ET
SERGEANT KOLLIE TOWN, Liberia?Rubber gloves were nearly as scarce as doctors in this part of rural Liberia, so Melvin Korkor would swaddle his hands in plastic grocery bags to deliver babies.
His staff didn't bother even with those when a woman in her 30s stopped by complaining of a headache. Five nurses, a lab technician?then a local woman who was helping out?cared for her with their bare hands.
Within weeks, all of them died. The woman with a headache, they learned too late, had Ebola...
...As of Tuesday, at least 36 health workers in Liberia had died from the disease, according to health ministry records. Many who have caught but survived the virus are traumatized, as are colleagues, and may prove difficult to coax back to work.
Their absence is deeply felt. Even before Ebola, Liberia?with just 51 doctors for four million people?had the second-fewest physicians per person on Earth, after Tanzania, according to the WHO.
Hospital staff members throughout Liberia, including at Dr. Korkor's Phebe Hospital, have gone on strike until the government meets their demands. They want rubber gloves, safety goggles, protective suits, life insurance and a fivefold pay increase for the hazardous work. The government has said it plans to meet those requests.
In the meantime, because doctors aren't at work, other diseases besides Ebola are going untreated. As a result, those ailments?chiefly typhoid and dysentery?may be killing more West Africans than Ebola, according to the United Nations Children's Fund...
For Want of Gloves, Ebola Doctors Die
On the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, health-care workers believe its toll on their own staffs could be mitigated if only they had enough basic hospital supplies such as gloves
By
Drew Hinshaw
Updated Aug. 15, 2014 7:17 p.m. ET
SERGEANT KOLLIE TOWN, Liberia?Rubber gloves were nearly as scarce as doctors in this part of rural Liberia, so Melvin Korkor would swaddle his hands in plastic grocery bags to deliver babies.
His staff didn't bother even with those when a woman in her 30s stopped by complaining of a headache. Five nurses, a lab technician?then a local woman who was helping out?cared for her with their bare hands.
Within weeks, all of them died. The woman with a headache, they learned too late, had Ebola...
...As of Tuesday, at least 36 health workers in Liberia had died from the disease, according to health ministry records. Many who have caught but survived the virus are traumatized, as are colleagues, and may prove difficult to coax back to work.
Their absence is deeply felt. Even before Ebola, Liberia?with just 51 doctors for four million people?had the second-fewest physicians per person on Earth, after Tanzania, according to the WHO.
Hospital staff members throughout Liberia, including at Dr. Korkor's Phebe Hospital, have gone on strike until the government meets their demands. They want rubber gloves, safety goggles, protective suits, life insurance and a fivefold pay increase for the hazardous work. The government has said it plans to meet those requests.
In the meantime, because doctors aren't at work, other diseases besides Ebola are going untreated. As a result, those ailments?chiefly typhoid and dysentery?may be killing more West Africans than Ebola, according to the United Nations Children's Fund...