Dr Nestor NDAYIMIRIJE, WHO Representative in Liberia, speaks about the Ebola outbreak here and in neighbouring countries, and WHO’s effort to support the response. Photographs taken in July 2014 in this area illustrate his statement (Photo credits: WHO and Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare).
This testimony was recorded in Liberia on 17 July 2014 at Foya district's treatment centre. Saah Tamba from Lofa’s capital Voinjama lost five members of his family describes the ordeal he went through when he was sick of Ebola which he contracted from his uncle – the body pains, the chills due to high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. He immediately went to the clinic and health staff brought him to the treatment centre in Foya. “When I got sick, my family doubted my recovery. The doctors who treated me gave me certificate that indicates I am free of Ebola, if anyone would still doubt. I am now free to go home, I am well and I am happy.”
For health systems fighting the Ebola outbreak, it is important to identify survivors in order to record their experiences and support community awareness efforts by sharing their ordeals and how they managed to survive Ebola. It indeed helps to alleviate some resistance, panic, denial, and misconceptions that local populations often have about this disease.
This testimony was recorded in Liberia on 17 July 2014 at Foya district's treatment centre. Harrison recounts that he contracted Ebola when he assisted her sick mother. A week after her death, he too got sick. Health staff of Samaritan’s Purse saw him and took him to the treatment centre. “I didn’t refuse, I joined them, they tested me – it was positive. They took me to the area of the treatment centre for confirmed cases. After one week, they came for my blood test, it was negative. I came out. I am alright.”
For health systems fighting the Ebola outbreak, it is important to identify survivors in order to record their experiences and support community awareness efforts by sharing their ordeals and how they managed to survive Ebola. It indeed helps to alleviate some resistance, panic, denial, and misconceptions that local populations often have about this disease.
As of 22 October 2014, a delegation of 53 Cuban health workers arrived in Liberia to help fight the Ebola outbreak. The Cuban team consists of nurses, doctors, epidemiologists and intensive care specialists. Having received an initial Ebola training in Cuba, all team members received a second training in Liberia on how to work in an Ebola treatment unit.
Being one of the first foreign medical teams to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, the Cuban delegation will stay in the country for 6 months. They will work in shifts in smaller teams mainly in the newly opened Ebola treatment unit located at the former Ministry of Defence compound in Monrovia.
Ever since the closure of the university due to the Ebola outbreak, Robbin George, criminology student at the University of Liberia, has been trying to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus in his country. He joined the team of active case finders to go from house to house to find out if sick people are being treated
“When the outbreak first started in March and we heard about this deadly virus Ebola, I was in Kakata,” says Austin S. Jallah, a student nurse of Kakata University, in Margibi County, Liberia and working as a WHO expert patient trainer.
“People really doubted the fact that Ebola was real, until we heard about the first case in the hospital. I wasn’t one of those who doubted though. Because I am a student nurse, I had read about the Ebola virus before, how it was first discovered back in 1976.”
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has produced increasing circles of victims beyond the infected and the dead. Survivors, families, children, and health workers are dealing with the stress and trauma left behind by the disease. Meet E. Dash Karbar Sr, a psychosocial worker working in Island Clinic Ebola Treatment Unit. Dash is one of the 57 mental health clinicians trained by WHO and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on how to support their fellow healthcare worker colleagues, how to support Ebola patients, and how to serve as a liaison between Ebola patients and their families and communities.
Pieter Desloovere, a WHO spokesperson, was deployed as a communications officer to Liberia from September 2014 till January 2015. He shares his reflection of his experience on the ground, and looks back at how Liberia got to zero cases and its successes as well as his most touching moment