Health officials call deaths devastating as
Nigerian medics fly in to help in country where
virus spreading fastest .
Two doctors have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone
on the same day, a government and a hospital
source said , bringing to 10 the number of doctors
killed in by the virus in one of the worst - affected
countries.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has torn
through some of West Africa ' s weakest health
systems, killing nearly 350 medical personnel,
including 106 in Sierra Leone , which is still
rebuilding from years of war in the 1990 s.
"We are devastated at this haemorrhaging of our
healthcare workers, " a senior health ministry
official told the Reuters news agency , asking not
to be named.
There was no immediate comment from
authorities but the sources named the two dead
doctors.
It is not clear how the men were infected as they
were not working on the frontline in an Ebola
clinic .
While addressing parliament earlier on Friday,
President Ernest Bai Koroma had called medical
personnel fighting Ebola the country ' s "greatest
patriots".
Sierra Leone has pledged to pay the families of
all medical staff who die battling Ebola $5 , 000 in
compensation.
The latest figures from the World Health
Organisation showed Ebola has killed nearly
6, 200 people , mainly in Liberia , Sierra Leone and
Guinea, since it was confirmed in the region
earlier this year.
In an effort to step up the fight against the
disease, more than 175 Nigerian medics arrived
in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday, the first of
600 volunteers promised by a regional giant
which contained its own outbreak earlier this
year.
The medics will boost weak local health systems
that are also struggling to contain other
preventable diseases as Ebola discourages people
from going to clinics for fear of contracting the
fever .
"This is the African spirit you are showing , this is
the Nigerian spirit, " Nigeria' s ambassador to
Liberia, Chigozie Obi- Nnadozie , told 76 Nigerian
medics who landed there .
Another 100 volunteers landed in Freetown ,
Sierra Leone .
Months into the Ebola response, experts say they
are still short of medical personnel to staff
treatment centres.
UN child agency UNICEF on Friday began a
campaign to provide 2 .4 million people in Sierra
Leone with anti - malarial drugs to ease the strain
on the healthcare system and allow Ebola cases
to be identified more easily . The two diseases
have similar symptoms, including headaches ,
fever and aching joints .
Liberia' s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued an
order banning rallies and public meetings ahead
of a Senate election scheduled for later this
month, saying the move was part of the fight
against Ebola .
Amid signs of a slowdown in the epidemic in
Guinea - where the virus was first detected in
March - neighbouring Guinea - Bissau said it would
reopen their shared border by next week .
Nigerian medics fly in to help in country where
virus spreading fastest .
Two doctors have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone
on the same day, a government and a hospital
source said , bringing to 10 the number of doctors
killed in by the virus in one of the worst - affected
countries.
The worst Ebola outbreak on record has torn
through some of West Africa ' s weakest health
systems, killing nearly 350 medical personnel,
including 106 in Sierra Leone , which is still
rebuilding from years of war in the 1990 s.
"We are devastated at this haemorrhaging of our
healthcare workers, " a senior health ministry
official told the Reuters news agency , asking not
to be named.
There was no immediate comment from
authorities but the sources named the two dead
doctors.
It is not clear how the men were infected as they
were not working on the frontline in an Ebola
clinic .
While addressing parliament earlier on Friday,
President Ernest Bai Koroma had called medical
personnel fighting Ebola the country ' s "greatest
patriots".
Sierra Leone has pledged to pay the families of
all medical staff who die battling Ebola $5 , 000 in
compensation.
The latest figures from the World Health
Organisation showed Ebola has killed nearly
6, 200 people , mainly in Liberia , Sierra Leone and
Guinea, since it was confirmed in the region
earlier this year.
In an effort to step up the fight against the
disease, more than 175 Nigerian medics arrived
in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday, the first of
600 volunteers promised by a regional giant
which contained its own outbreak earlier this
year.
The medics will boost weak local health systems
that are also struggling to contain other
preventable diseases as Ebola discourages people
from going to clinics for fear of contracting the
fever .
"This is the African spirit you are showing , this is
the Nigerian spirit, " Nigeria' s ambassador to
Liberia, Chigozie Obi- Nnadozie , told 76 Nigerian
medics who landed there .
Another 100 volunteers landed in Freetown ,
Sierra Leone .
Months into the Ebola response, experts say they
are still short of medical personnel to staff
treatment centres.
UN child agency UNICEF on Friday began a
campaign to provide 2 .4 million people in Sierra
Leone with anti - malarial drugs to ease the strain
on the healthcare system and allow Ebola cases
to be identified more easily . The two diseases
have similar symptoms, including headaches ,
fever and aching joints .
Liberia' s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued an
order banning rallies and public meetings ahead
of a Senate election scheduled for later this
month, saying the move was part of the fight
against Ebola .
Amid signs of a slowdown in the epidemic in
Guinea - where the virus was first detected in
March - neighbouring Guinea - Bissau said it would
reopen their shared border by next week .
posted from Bloggeroid
0 comments: