MHSC
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/world/africa/liberia-ebola-victims-treatment-center-cdc.html
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Only 18 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia are being cared for in hospitals, holding centers or other settings that reduce the risk of transmission by isolating them from the rest of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The 3,000-strong American mission will not treat Ebola patients, but will build as many as 17 treatment centers, with a total of 1,700 beds, and try to train 500 health workers a week.
But building the centers is expected to take weeks and it is unclear who will run them, especially since the disease has decimated Liberia?s already weak health care system and the fear of Ebola has long kept many international aid workers away.
?I?ve worked in many crises for more than 20 years, and it?s the first time I can see a situation that nobody wants to come,? said Jean-Pierre Veyrenche, who is heading the World Health Organization?s efforts to build treatment centers here. ?There?s plenty of money, so that?s not the issue. If you look at Haiti, there were about 800 N.G.O.s there.?
?People are afraid to come ? that?s it,? he added.
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?It took us a few weeks to just open 10 beds,? he said.
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In front of the gate at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center?s maternity ward, a pregnant woman lay dead in the back seat of a taxi. She had died during labor and did not suffer from Ebola, her family insisted. But a hospital worker said the woman had been bleeding from her mouth, so she had been turned away from the maternity ward. When the body collectors finally opened the taxi door, they found that she had vomited blood.
In the Matadi neighborhood, community leaders, including a member of the local Ebola task force, said emphatically that another death, of a 24-year-old man, had resulted from epilepsy. But again, the body collectors found blood coming from his mouth, more evidence of the virus.
In a neighborhood called PHP, community leaders who had gathered in a mosque explained that a 75-year-old woman had died of a stroke. Absolutely no Ebola, they said, as Mark Korvayan, 37, the leader of a team of body collectors, nodded.
But as his team went to pick up the body from a dank room, Mr. Korvayan said that he had picked up the woman?s daughter and nephew from the same room in the past month.
?They?re trying to cover it up,? he said. ?It?s our third time here.?
As he had often seen, this community, caught up in its own denials, continued to engage in funeral practices that helped spread Ebola, he said.
?They told me that somebody even bathed the old woman?s body.?
...
Only 18 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia are being cared for in hospitals, holding centers or other settings that reduce the risk of transmission by isolating them from the rest of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
...
The 3,000-strong American mission will not treat Ebola patients, but will build as many as 17 treatment centers, with a total of 1,700 beds, and try to train 500 health workers a week.
But building the centers is expected to take weeks and it is unclear who will run them, especially since the disease has decimated Liberia?s already weak health care system and the fear of Ebola has long kept many international aid workers away.
?I?ve worked in many crises for more than 20 years, and it?s the first time I can see a situation that nobody wants to come,? said Jean-Pierre Veyrenche, who is heading the World Health Organization?s efforts to build treatment centers here. ?There?s plenty of money, so that?s not the issue. If you look at Haiti, there were about 800 N.G.O.s there.?
?People are afraid to come ? that?s it,? he added.
...
?It took us a few weeks to just open 10 beds,? he said.
...
In front of the gate at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center?s maternity ward, a pregnant woman lay dead in the back seat of a taxi. She had died during labor and did not suffer from Ebola, her family insisted. But a hospital worker said the woman had been bleeding from her mouth, so she had been turned away from the maternity ward. When the body collectors finally opened the taxi door, they found that she had vomited blood.
In the Matadi neighborhood, community leaders, including a member of the local Ebola task force, said emphatically that another death, of a 24-year-old man, had resulted from epilepsy. But again, the body collectors found blood coming from his mouth, more evidence of the virus.
In a neighborhood called PHP, community leaders who had gathered in a mosque explained that a 75-year-old woman had died of a stroke. Absolutely no Ebola, they said, as Mark Korvayan, 37, the leader of a team of body collectors, nodded.
But as his team went to pick up the body from a dank room, Mr. Korvayan said that he had picked up the woman?s daughter and nephew from the same room in the past month.
?They?re trying to cover it up,? he said. ?It?s our third time here.?
As he had often seen, this community, caught up in its own denials, continued to engage in funeral practices that helped spread Ebola, he said.
?They told me that somebody even bathed the old woman?s body.?