- Relatives watch as ambulance teams take Ebola victims away for treatment
- Others can only look on as the bodies of their loved ones are taken away
- Monrovia’s slum-dwelling residents are some of the hardest hit by outbreak
- Latest WHO statistics place the death toll from the Ebola outbreak at 4,447
Wracked with grief and despair, a woman weeps for the loss of her relative in the poverty-stricken slums of Monrovia.
With little healthcare or education to speak of, there is nothing residents can do except watch as their loved ones succumb to the deadly Ebola virus ravaging the city.
Crippled by poverty and still reeling from the effects of a devastating civil war, Liberia is ill-equipped to deal with a potential human catastrophe on this scale.
Wracked with grief, a woman weeps for the loss of her relative in the poverty-stricken slums of Monrovia
Crippled by poverty and still reeling from the effects of a devastating civil war, Liberia is ill-equipped to deal with a potential human catastrophe on this scale
The latest statistics from the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) place the death toll from the Ebola virus outbreak at 4,447, with the vast majority of those fatalities in West Africa.
More than half the dead have been in Liberia.
The country’s slum-dwelling population are some of the hardest hit by the epidemic which has sent shockwaves across West Africa and the world.
WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward said the U.N. health agency was still focused on trying to treat Ebola patients, despite the huge demands on the broken health systems in West Africa.
A Liberian boy reacts after being injured during clashes with Liberian security forces in the West Point area of Monrovia. Residents were protesting against government’s decision to quarantine the slum area
A Liberian ambulance team transport 70-year old Francis Konneh, a suspected Ebola patient from the township of West point in Monrovia, Liberia, yesterday
A Liberian nurse disinfects a relative of a suspected Ebola patient at the slum township of West point
‘It would be horrifically unethical to say that we’re just going to isolate people,’ he said, noting that new strategies like handing out protective equipment to families and setting up very basic clinics – without much treatment – was a priority.
A planned strike at Ebola treatment centers was averted as most nurses and health care workers reported for work. Many saying they could not in good conscience leave their patients unattended.
Health workers have been asking for increased hazard pay. They are one of the most high-risk groups of Ebola infection, with nearly 100 of them having died in Liberia alone.
Red Cross members carry dead body of Mambodou Aliyu, 35, who died from the Ebola virus in Monrovia
A Liberian ambulance team prepare transport suspected Ebola patient Francis Konneh, 70
‘We have called for the strike action to be called off on humanitarian grounds,’ said George Williams, secretary-general of the National Health Workers Association of Liberia.
‘Our doors are open for negotiations at a later date…but as of now we call off the action based on numerous appeals from the Liberian people both home and the diaspora.’
Lori Thicke, founder of non-profit organization Translators Without Borders, said one of the main problems containing Ebola in the West African nation is the lack of communication in the poorest areas.
‘In Liberia only 20 per cent of the population speaks English,’ she said. ‘People at the bottom of the pyramid – such as those who live in the slums of Monrovia – are even less likely to be conversant in a European language such as English.
Red Cross members sterilize each other before they pick up the dead body of Mambodou Aliyu in Monrovia
‘Ebola is spread by ignorance, and communicating with people in a foreign tongue is not getting the message across.
‘Trust is another issue,’ she added. ‘People are not trusting these messages that arrive in a language they barely understand, leading to the widespread notion that Ebola is not real.’
WHO has said that the epidemic is continuing to spread in the three worst-hit nations – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – and there could be between 5,000 and 10,000 new cases a week by early December.
The deadly virus has also reached Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States but outbreaks have been contained so far.
Dr. Aylward said that the 70 per cent death rate of Ebola was ‘a high mortality disease’ in any circumstance. Previously, WHO had said the death rate was around 50 per cent.
A Liberian Red Cross burial team member picks up the body of a suspected Ebola victim in the impoverished area of West Point
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2795283/helpless-face-ebola-devastated-families-grieve-deadly-disease-ravages-slums-liberia.html#ixzz3GKM7PUUH
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