Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
When Ebola came calling: how communities in Sierra Leone faced the challenge
November 2014
When Ebola first swept through Port Loko District, Sierra Leone the rash of sudden inexplicable deaths was so shocking local people explained it as "a witch plane crash."
But as husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and children began to sicken and die they realized this was not a supernatural event but something very human that would take human actions to reverse.
With no beds in hospitals and local clinics so overwhelmed that desperately ill people were lying outside on balconies, local leaders, with the support of WHO, began racing to set up community care centres.
The first of these opened on November 3. Here in pictures is the story of what they did.
Highly Recommended: Read the photo story
WHO
November 2014
When Ebola first swept through Port Loko District, Sierra Leone the rash of sudden inexplicable deaths was so shocking local people explained it as "a witch plane crash."
But as husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and children began to sicken and die they realized this was not a supernatural event but something very human that would take human actions to reverse.
With no beds in hospitals and local clinics so overwhelmed that desperately ill people were lying outside on balconies, local leaders, with the support of WHO, began racing to set up community care centres.
The first of these opened on November 3. Here in pictures is the story of what they did.
Highly Recommended: Read the photo story
WHO