One of the saddest stories of this year has been the death of Salome Karwah, a Liberian health worker who was featured on the cover of Time magazine as a fighter in the 2014 Ebola epidemic.
She lost most of her family to the disease. She was also infected, but she recovered to return to the clinical front lines to care for hundreds of other patients. Earlier this year in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, she died from complications of childbirth.
Her death draws new attention to the governing structure in Liberia. The scope of the dysfunction that Ebola revealed is beyond what can be chalked up simply to being a weak state in West Africa.… Seguir leyendo »
Liberia was finally declared Ebola-free a year ago this month. The 2013-2015 outbreak wreaked havoc on the lives of thousands of Liberians, infecting at least 10,675 and killing 4,809. Many more were affected: 4 in 10 Liberians reported having a relative or close friend die during the outbreak.
During Liberia’s epidemic, analysts pointed to multiple obstacles blocking effective response: inadequate health facilities and resources, citizens’ mistrust of government, and the slow international response. There were questions about whether the Ebola outbreak would have severe consequences for Liberia’s already embattled government, leaving citizens even more distrustful of government and its ability to protect and provide for them.… Seguir leyendo »
On Saturday, the World Health Organization declared Liberia to be Ebola-free, recognizing that there had been no new cases since the end of March. While its neighbors Sierra Leone and Guinea still wrestle with this virologic demon, this is a moment for reflection and cautious optimism in Liberia. The world must ensure that what happened in Liberia never happens again — there, or anywhere.
Only eight months ago, the most tragic scenes were still unfolding in Liberia, one of the three countries hardest hit by the outbreak. Newly built treatment centers sat empty while bodies of the dead, and nearly dead, lay in the streets.… Seguir leyendo »
El brote de ébola que comenzó el año pasado en Guinea, Sierra Leona y Liberia, tres de los cuatro países de la Unión del Río Mano, es el más grave registrado desde que en 1976 se diagnosticó esa enfermedad por primera vez en el África central. Las consecuencias de la epidemia han sido devastadoras y han puesto en entredicho los importantes avances socioeconómicos de nuestros tres países después de decenios de conflictos e inestabilidad.
Hasta ahora, esa región ha registrado un total de 25.791 casos y 10.689 muertes, casi diez veces el número de muertes de todas las epidemias de ébola combinadas.… Seguir leyendo »
The conventional wisdom among public health authorities is that the Ebola virus, which killed at least 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, was a new phenomenon, not seen in West Africa before 2013. (The one exception was an anomalous case in Ivory Coast in 1994, when a Swiss primatologist was infected after performing an autopsy on a chimpanzee.)
The conventional wisdom is wrong. We were stunned recently when we stumbled across an article by European researchers in Annals of Virology: “The results seem to indicate that Liberia has to be included in the Ebola virus endemic zone.” In the future, the authors asserted, “medical personnel in Liberian health centers should be aware of the possibility that they may come across active cases and thus be prepared to avoid nosocomial epidemics,” referring to hospital-acquired infection.… Seguir leyendo »
"Every day, we cried" -- these were the words spoken over and over to me by a colleagues as we sat down after another long day for a rare drink in Monrovia, Liberia's bustling capital.
She was reminiscing about the period in September and October when the Ebola outbreak was at its peak. "Of all the pain that we faced, the cremation was the hardest", she explained. I knew exactly what she meant -- cremation was as far away from the norm for burials in West Africa as one can imagine.
As the Ebola outbreak wanes in Liberia, it is easy to imagine the heroes as the myriad of foreign doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and logisticians that have come to support the country in their days of need, and yes, these expatriates have definitely brought to bear much knowledge, expertise and resources on controlling the outbreak.… Seguir leyendo »
La epidemia de ébola en el África occidental está destruyendo vidas, diezmando comunidades y dejando huérfanos a niños a un ritmo que no se había visto desde las brutales guerras civiles de esa región que se acabaron hace más de un decenio. En Liberia, el 60 por ciento de los mercados están cerrados ahora; en Sierra Leona, sólo una quinta parte de los 10.000 pacientes de VIH que están en tratamientos antivirales siguen recibiéndolos y el Gobierno de Guinea está comunicando un desfase financiero de 220 millones de dólares debido a la crisis. Si no se contiene pronto el brote, la mayoría de los beneficios económicos y sociales logrados desde que se restableció la paz en Liberia y Sierra Leona y desde que se inició la transición democrática de Guinea podrían perderse.… Seguir leyendo »
In their single-room house, in a Monrovia back street, 16-year-old Promise Cooper and her three younger sisters slept beside their father’s corpse for three days. After hearing rumours about her sick father, neighbours had turned away Promise’s pleas for help lest she pass Ebola on to them. Eventually, health officials removed the body, along with the Coopers’ belongings, including their bedding and clothing, and then disinfected the house with chlorine spray. The Cooper girls were left with just the clothes they were wearing and one cup of rice a generous neighbour had nervously prodded towards their door with a stick.
Promise’s story is far from unique – hundreds of stories like this have been created each month in Monrovia since May.… Seguir leyendo »
On a Monday evening last month in Liberia, at Grand Gedeh County’s main hospital, two nurses knocked on a patient’s door. The patient was being treated for malaria and typhoid, but had also recently tested positive for Ebola — though he didn’t know it yet. I was doing training on Ebola at the hospital, and had seen him from a distance just that morning. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
Dressed in their full Ebola combat gear — body suit, apron, head cover, face mask, goggles, face shield, boots and rubber gloves — the nurses tried to avoid alarming him by saying that they needed to take him to Monrovia, 300 miles to the northwest, for further testing.… Seguir leyendo »
As the Ebola nightmare continues in Liberia and as we battle to contain the epidemic, it is important to look beyond the immediate crisis. Many more lives will be lost before this dreadful outbreak is beaten, but to properly honor the memory of the victims we need to ask how it happened in the first place and, more pressingly, how we can prevent it from happening again.
After 30 years of brutal civil and political unrest, Liberia was a nation reborn. We transformed our country from a failed state into a stable democracy, rebuilding its infrastructure and its education and health systems, and enjoying one of the most promising growth records in Africa.… Seguir leyendo »
The spread of the Ebola virus across West Africa has been fast and deadly. The World Health Organization has characterized the speed and extent of the outbreak as unprecedented. To date, at least 2,288 people in the region have died, and some 4,269 confirmed or probable cases have been reported. But the global response has been underwhelming; the aid group Doctors Without Borders has characterized international efforts to tackle the crisis as “dangerously inadequate.”
Liberia has been hardest hit by the epidemic. So far the country has counted 1,224 likely Ebola deaths, of which 508 have been confirmed by laboratory testing.… Seguir leyendo »
En el África subsahariana, todo niño con fiebre debe recibir atención médica inmediata para prevenir la muerte por paludismo o neumonía, pero, como el pánico por la propagación del ébola está cundiendo en Liberia –además de en Sierra Leona, Guinea y Nigeria–, se está relacionando cada vez más a los clínicos y las instalaciones de atención de salud con la exposición a la enfermedad. Para velar por que sigan acudiendo a recibir atención cuando la necesiten, son necesarias mejoras en los dispensarios de primera línea e inversión en la contratación de agentes de salud comunitarios para que lleguen hasta las personas vulnerables en sus hogares.… Seguir leyendo »
When my 65-year-old mother visited my foundation’s office recently, she was covered from head to toe in a long winter coat and headdress despite it being 28C. She explained that she wanted extra protection against the Ebola virus.
As the outbreak worsened I urged my parents to leave Monrovia. But my mother, a vibrant and protective member of her community, refuses. She is the sole carer for my grandmother, a centenarian who is too frail and stubborn to travel. She stays because she loves her home and her community. She stays for Liberia.
Last year, Liberia celebrated the 10th anniversary of the end of a long and bloody civil war.… Seguir leyendo »
Utilizamos cookies para el correcto funcionamiento de la página web y analíticas para estadísticas.ACEPTARPolítica de privacidad
