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Too many dying in Sierra Leone as result of Ebola response not virus itself – report
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THE GUARDIAN by Sarah Boseley April 28, 2015
Too many people are dying in Sierra Leone not from Ebola but as a result of the response to it, according to a report on the collapse of healthcare in the west African country.
Health workers at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, last November. Photograph: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images
Ebola has killed at least 3,900 people in Sierra Leone so far, but the epidemic has critically damaged the ability of the country’s limited healthcare system to cope with anything else, including soaring HIV and tuberculosis rates.
More people are believed to have died from malaria than from Ebola, while deaths of mothers and babies in childbirth are thought to have risen significantly.
Health and medical staff have been drawn away from their clinics into the Ebola response effort and the population has lost confidence in their health centres and hospitals. Attendance at clinics has plummeted by more than 70%.
The grim picture of a healthcare system in meltdown comes from a report from the charity Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which carried out a detailed investigation in the Moyamba region where it was running an Ebola treatment centre. The report’s author, British doctor James Elston, says there is every reason to believe the situation is the same or worse in every region of Sierra Leone.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/28/too-many-dying-sierra-leone-response-ebola-report
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Beyond Ebola-Rebuilding Health Services in Moyamba, Sierra Leone
doctorsoftheworld.org.uk -by Chelsea Radler - April 28, 2015
CLICK HERE - Beyond Ebola: Rebuilding Health Services in Moyamba, Sierra Leone - A Situation Analysis and Population Health Needs Assessment (171 page .PDF report)
There’s a health crisis in West Africa – and it’s not Ebola
The rusty diesel generator that fuels the only hospital in Moyamba District sputters before clicking off. There’s only enough fuel for it to run for four hours, twice a day.
In this southern region of Sierra Leone, there are no incubators for premature babies, no oxygen supplies for ailing patients, no resuscitation or surgical equipment – and no power to run them. While the world’s attention has justifiably been focused on reducing Ebola cases to zero, another health emergency has silently erupted in West Africa. The diversion of resources and interest away from general healthcare means more people are dying of preventable conditions than they ever were from Ebola.
A new report by Doctors of the World found that, in one region of Sierra Leone, as many deaths have been recorded in four months as in previous one-year periods. Forty percent of the dead are children younger than five. The cause: lack of general care for largely curable conditions.
(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)