The perilous trek of a 4-year-old Liberian suspected of having Ebola

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Wed, 2014-12-24 09:29 — mike kraft

The village of Quewein, without electricity or clean water, and others like it pose new challenges in the campaign to stop the virus. David Korn, 39, the town chief of Quewein, Liberia, says Ebola is “tearing the village apart.” Michel du Cille/The Washington Post

Ebola's Deep Persistence

THE WASHINGTON POST by Justin Jouvenal Dec. 24, 2014

QUEWEIN, Liberia--Darius Bondo was suspected of having Ebola, but no ambulance was coming. Three rivers and a rain forest uncut by roads lay between the skinny 4-year-old in a remote village and transportation to a treatment center.

...Rural Ebola flare-ups in places such as Quewein have become a focus for rapid-response teams of doctors, health officials and other workers who hope to prevent these cases from reigniting Liberia’s epidemic.

But the fight for Quewein — and the fight to save Darius — illustrates exactly how hard that task will be. The village of 55 mud-brick homes with thatched roofs, several hours northeast of the capital, Monrovia, is so remote that health officials didn’t learn of the outbreak until a month after it started. Quewein has no electricity, no clean water and no access to medical facilities.

“We’ve managed to bend the curve on this epidemic, but it’s not over yet,” said Sheldon Yett, head of UNICEF’s mission in Liberia. “We are at a stage in the epidemic where we have to go to every village. We have to hunt down every case....”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/the-perilous-trek-of-a-4-year-old-liberian-seeking-treatment-for-ebola/2014/12/23/5b89ffcc-80b0-11e4-b936-f3afab0155a7_story.html?hpid=z1

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