Sierra Leone?s fight against Ebola infection

[Gert van der Hoek]

Sierra Leone?s fight against Ebola infection: ?The world is not safe?

Sparsely-equipped hospitals and beleaguered staff battle a disease whose victims outpace the number of beds being built

Lisa O'Carroll in Freetown

The Guardian, Thursday 30 October 2014

All over Freetown, buildings, vehicles and people are being commandeered in the fight against Ebola. In the suburb of Wilberforce, in an old building for the telecommunications company Airtel, a dozen students loiter on a wall waiting to relieve staff from the trauma at the Ebola hotline they are manning.

Outside, the din of ambulances would not be noteworthy until the driver and passenger appear in regulation yellow overalls, mask, goggles, hood and visor.

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.

?I would rather have 40 NHS volunteers on the frontline fighting this outbreak today than 400 in January when it may be too late,? says Johnson. What is needed is a different strategy with dozens of small 10- to 15-bed units which can be run by international experts.

But red tape, growing hysteria in the US and the UK over volunteering, and the attitude of some international NGOs mean resources are not being deployed quickly enough. NHS volunteers have yet to arrive and Johnson questions whether any will be permitted to work in the local facilities he is advising the Sierra Leonean government on.

Read the whole story