Over 600 health professionals infected by Ebola in West Africa –WHO

No fewer than 600 health workers, comprising doctors, nurses, and other care givers have been infected by the deadly Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the disease first broke out in Guinea last year, the World Health Organization, WHO, has said.

The institution stated this recently in Geneva, Switzerland, at a meeting with Ministers of Health and Finance of the three countries.

This is even as the WHO, through its Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, urged stakeholders to acknowledge and appreciate the role of traditional healers in combating the virus, and in rebuilding the nations’ health system.

Chan lamented the widening gap in human resources for health in the affected countries and the toll the scourge has had on the nations.

She appealed to the delegations to hasten efforts on rebuilding their health institutions and systems, stressing that the spread of the Ebola virus must be contained.

“The three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, are among the poorest in the world. All three have only recently emerged from years of civil war and conflict that left health infrastructures badly damaged or destroyed.

“Prior to the outbreaks, these countries had only one to two doctors to treat a population of nearly 100 000 people. That number has been diminished as more than 600 health care staff have been infected.

“At the start of the outbreak, weaknesses existed throughout the health systems. Laboratories were few in number and concentrated in cities.

“Many large referral hospitals had no electricity and running water or were made unsafe by electrical fires and floods. Isolation wards were rare, mostly dedicated to the care of Lassa fever patients.

“The numbers of ambulances and other vehicles, also for the transportation of diagnostic specimens, were inadequate.

“Supplies of essential medicines and personal protective equipment were unreliable, and systems for civil registration and vital statistics were nascent.

“Populations in all the three countries remain deeply distrustful of health systems, especially Western medicine and foreign medical teams. Care from traditional healers is the preferred and, in rural areas, often the only option,” she added.

While noting that progress made in moving towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals had been reversed in the countries by the disease, she called on the delegations to focus on health priorities that must be accountably financed.

She listed some of those priorities as fostering enhanced mutual understanding between health workers and communities, putting in place good referral system to provide health services; guaranteeing uninterrupted supply of electricity, running water, and essential medicines and supplies…

“Capacity to detect and respond to new or emerging infectious diseases needs to be an integral part of the health system.

“Finally, community confidence in traditional healers needs to be respected by giving these care-givers a place, with a clearly defined role, in the formal health system,” Chan urged.