#Ebola is no ordinary #disease. It changes the way people relate to each other With Ebola receding from the headlines in Australia there’s a perception that the epidemic is under control. Nothing could be further from the truth. The outbreak is now sweeping across regional parts of Sierra Leone and is raging in Freetown. About 500 new cases are reported each week, with no immediate prospect of any respite. It’s only by comparison that the modest progress in parts of Liberia looks good. The headline figure of 6,000 deaths doesn’t do justice to the profound and far reaching impact of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. In countries that rank near the bottom of the human development index, where bloody civil wars have taken a huge toll, Ebola has wrought havoc across the health sector, education and the economy. I visited makeshift triage facilities established outside hospitals and walked through deserted hospital wards. An eerie quiet has replaced the chaos normally found in a place dealing with high case loads of malaria, dysentery and road trauma. The health system in both countries was barely functioning before the outbreak but it is now near total collapse. The few hospitals present in both countries are either closed or barely functioning and the death of some of Liberia’s most senior doctors means that new graduates can’t be trained. In a country with so few doctors it’s a big blow. In Sierra Leone, which has one of the highest under-five mortality rates in the world, childhood immunisation rates have plummeted by over 60%. The preventable deaths resulting from the breakdown of the health system won’t be counted in the official death toll but they are a direct consequence of this outbreak and matter just as much. Things are just as grim in education. Schools and universities were shut down shortly after the outbreak was confirmed. School buildings were used as holding centres where people suspected of Ebola were sent. It’s not clear why these decisions were made but there’s widespread concern about their impact. Many school children have now started working, either selling food by the side of the road or helping with the family harvest. It may be a year before schools reopen and most won’t go back. Teen pregnancy and underage marriage are also big issues here and there are fears that they will get worse. To make matters worse, schools that housed the dead and the dying are now highly stigmatised places to be avoided. “We’ve lost a generation of kids,” an NGO worker told me. The immediate focus though is on containing the raging epidemic and providing treatment to those who need it. There aren’t enough beds in Freetown right now, although it’s anticipated they more will come online soon. Flare-ups make long term planning difficult; by the time new treatment centres come online in one town, the outbreak moves and they are needed elsewhere. Part of the challenge is that this is a disease spread through love. The people most at risk are those looking after a sick parent or child, and asking them to resist this most basic human instinct is to deny their very humanity. It confronts deeply held beliefs and customs. Rituals, such as washing of the body after death, can no longer be performed. It also demands that people change the way that they relate to each other. The instinct to reach out and connect with someone through a handshake needs to be fought. For a society where it’s not uncommon for men to hug and hold hands, is a very tough ask. The impact on children is of real concern because normal development thrives on touch and affection. The people doing the bulk of the work to fight this epidemic are West Africans. Many of these workers have lost entire families and live with the constant risk and anxiety of being exposed to Ebola. Yet they remain resolute. When a diagnosis of Typhoid or HIV comes as a relief, you understand that this is no ordinary disease. ift.tt/1BHRw2c
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 09:45:54 +0000
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