tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
It?s been nine weeks since the first case of Ebola hit Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the outbreak ravaging West Africa. There are now over 600 confirmed cases in the country?and 200 deaths.
Sierra Leone has fallen into turmoil. Health workers have been attacked, schools have shut down, and the government has declared a state of emergency.
?I don?t think the world ever expected what has happened here,? said Laura Miller, the health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee.
As the overall death toll in West Africa climbs toward 750, aid workers like Miller are rapidly shifting gears from development projects to disease containment.
Miller has spent the last three years in West Africa, working to help improve health conditions for Sierra Leonean mothers and children. In a country still rebuilding from a crippling decade-long civil war, her job was already difficult. Now, Ebola threatens to undo years of hard-won advances. Not only is the disease killing health workers, it?s sowing panic and distrust.
...
The virus lives on in the body of the host, even after death. This presents a particular danger in Sierra Leone, where death rituals are an important part of the culture. ?There?s a lot of touching of the body in Sierra Leone,? Miller said. ?Usually female leaders are involved in the cleaning.? In the case of an Ebola death, that can mean exposure to large amounts of blood.
...
The threat of an Ebola outbreak isn?t only the loss of life to the disease, but what Miller calls ?the non-Ebola Ebola victims,? people harmed by the hysteria that accompanies an outbreak. That includes all the people who won?t go to a health facility for fear of infection: Children with malaria won?t be treated; mothers will give birth at home without medical supervision.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that health workers have the highest risk of infection.
?A health system does not function without health workers,? she said. The country already had a shortage of trained doctors and nurses, due to the civil war?s interruption of education. ?Losing 100 to 200 health workers in Sierra Leone would be catastrophic.?
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/181...tm_campaign=Feed:+tabletmag+(Tablet+Magazine)
Sierra Leone has fallen into turmoil. Health workers have been attacked, schools have shut down, and the government has declared a state of emergency.
?I don?t think the world ever expected what has happened here,? said Laura Miller, the health coordinator for the International Rescue Committee.
As the overall death toll in West Africa climbs toward 750, aid workers like Miller are rapidly shifting gears from development projects to disease containment.
Miller has spent the last three years in West Africa, working to help improve health conditions for Sierra Leonean mothers and children. In a country still rebuilding from a crippling decade-long civil war, her job was already difficult. Now, Ebola threatens to undo years of hard-won advances. Not only is the disease killing health workers, it?s sowing panic and distrust.
...
The virus lives on in the body of the host, even after death. This presents a particular danger in Sierra Leone, where death rituals are an important part of the culture. ?There?s a lot of touching of the body in Sierra Leone,? Miller said. ?Usually female leaders are involved in the cleaning.? In the case of an Ebola death, that can mean exposure to large amounts of blood.
...
The threat of an Ebola outbreak isn?t only the loss of life to the disease, but what Miller calls ?the non-Ebola Ebola victims,? people harmed by the hysteria that accompanies an outbreak. That includes all the people who won?t go to a health facility for fear of infection: Children with malaria won?t be treated; mothers will give birth at home without medical supervision.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that health workers have the highest risk of infection.
?A health system does not function without health workers,? she said. The country already had a shortage of trained doctors and nurses, due to the civil war?s interruption of education. ?Losing 100 to 200 health workers in Sierra Leone would be catastrophic.?
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/181...tm_campaign=Feed:+tabletmag+(Tablet+Magazine)