The 'Heroes' Fighting Africa's Deadly Virus

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 02 Juli 2014 | 18.46

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, In Liberia

Sky News talks to the Ebola "heroes" fighting the virus in Foya, Liberia - the epicentre of the latest outbreak.

:: The District Health Officer 

Philip F Azumah conducts daily emergency meetings of about a dozen key local professionals from the backyard of his house in the centre of Foya, desperately trying to collate the latest information and planning fresh action to take that day to combat the spread of the virus and educate the population.

He organises samples to be taken of suspected cases and even personally transports these samples to the Guinea border a few kilometers away where the samples are received by a representative from Medecins Sans Frontiers and taken over the border by canoe boat to their testing lab twenty minutes away.

There is no Ebola testing laboratory in Foya itself and the capital Monrovia is nine hours drive away so this is the quickest route.

He says one of the main ways the virus is being spread is because the traditional way of dealing with the dead.

The dead person is often kept in the house for a week while relatives wash them, plait their hair, eat with them, weep and pray for them.#

This means if the person has died of Ebola, the virus is very easily spread through this close contact.
 

:: The Liberian Red Cross Worker

Ebola Outbreak Henry T Nyorka

Henry T Nyorkor spends his time calming fears and concerns amongst a terrified population many of whom are ignorant of the basic facts about how Ebola is spread.

He works hard at trying to spread information about how the virus is passed on and also at integrating those who miraculously survive (there's a ten percent survival rate) or those who test negative for the disease.

Even if people are cleared of having the virus, such is the fear of getting the disease, they are often outcasts in their communities.

This has also led to a general reluctance to notify the authorities of any symptoms - and some of those with Ebola have been hidden and buried secretly to avoid the relatives being ostracised.
 

:: The Hospital Administrator 

Ebola Outbreak Francis Forndia

Francis T Forndia is struggling to maintain morale at the tiny Foya-Borma hospital, the only hospital in the area and where three of the medical staff have already died.

They contracted the disease after treating a patient they did not realise had the virus. The deaths caused fear and panic amongst the medical staff and several fled the hospital and have not returned.

He urgently wants the Liberian Government to help out with a compensation package for the staff who are being asked to treat Ebola patients.

Right now should any of them contract the illness or even die, there is no help for the families and loved ones they leave behind so little incentive for them to risk their lives tackling one of the globe's most virulent diseases.
 

:: The Nurse 

Ebola Outbreak Adeyami Babatunde

Adeyemi Babatunde works in the High Risk Ebola Infection Unit set up on the edge of Foya town. He takes extraordinary risks treating and caring for those who have the disease and most of whom will die.

He is traumatised after the death of two of his nursing colleagues. He has to don extraordinary protective kit to ensure he doesn't catch the virus - including two layers of clothing, two gloves, rubber boots, head gear and a mask - every time he enters the infection ward.

In temperatures of nearly 40 degrees, the temperatures once kitted-up are stifling and the sights inside the ward are often frightening and traumatic.

Whilst we were there we saw him trying to treat another nurse who was bleeding heavily and was clearly very weak and dazed from the virus.

He does this in the knowledge that 90 per cent of all those confirmed as having Ebola end up dying. There is no cure or treatment for the virus.
 

:: The Survivor 

Ebola Outbreak Harrison Sakilla

Harrison Sakilla is in a very select group of Ebola survivors - one of only ten percent of those who catch the virus who have ended up living.

He caught it from tending to his dying mother in Sierra Leone who - unbeknown to him - had the disease. He brought the disease back over the border to Liberia with him and was struck down ill within three days of returning.

He informed the authorities and they managed to rehydrate him and care him back to health. He knows he is astonishingly lucky and credits the dedication of the medical nurses and Allah for saving him from an almost certain death.

The medics around the Ebola treatment have encouraged him to stay around the tented area as an example of someone who has survived and is back to good health.

"I feel strong," he told us when we spoke to him.

ebola

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