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| Drawing by artist Leslie Lumeh for Liberian newspaper Liberian Observer. Ebola: Crossing a Stormy Sea |
Some updates on Ebola: Some 800+ people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have died from Ebola since it first appeared in Guinea in March 2014. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has panicked the rest of the World leading the World Health Organization to call Ebola a worldwide cornern. Liberia and Sierra Leone have been in the mainstream media's spotlight following two American doctors' contact with Ebola and several prominent Liberian and Sierra Leonean doctors' deaths who courageously cared for their patients nonstop. Two Spanish doctors have been brought back Spain's capital Madrid from Liberia. The missionary priest turned doctor, Miguel Parajes, who also contracted Ebola after caring for patients at Monrovia's St. Jose Catholic Hospital. His partner, Juliana Bohi, an Equatorial Guinean-Spanish doctor who worked at the hospital, has also returned to Madrid but is Ebola free. Both doctors are being monitored by Spanish health authorities and doctors.
Ebola: Misionero espanol infectado con el virus en Madrid
The family and Decontee Swayer, the wife of the late Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American Finance Ministry employee, are still reeling and in mourning for the late Sawyer who died from Ebola after boarding a plane from Monrovia to Lagos, Nigeria. Sawyer's death in Lagos, Africa's largest growing megalopolis after Cairo, Egypt has sent Nigeria into panic mode. the Nigerian health ministry has reported one person has died from Ebola while 5 other cases have appeared in Lagos sending shock waves literally across Nigeria and other neighboring countries. An Ebola epidemic among 100 people in Lagos would be catastrophic for the densely populated city and could easily travel between city residents or by plane again to other Nigerian cities or aboard. Nigeria and Ghana along with other African countries have cancelled flights to and from Liberia. Liberian and Sierea Leonean football teams have been told not to participate in any regional football tournaments on the African continent. Meanwhile, the United States have brought both American doctors from Liberia to Atlanta, Georgia for study at Emory Hospital. Ironically, travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are currently banned from traveling to the U.S. out of fear that Ebola might spread across the country. Both doctors were working to treat Ebola patients in Monrovia's major hospitals ELWA and JFK when they contracted Ebola. The doctors were given experimental treatment in hopes of finding a breakthrough treatment leading to a cure for Ebola, an incurable and contagious disease that is a biohazard in its own rights. The experimental treatment has raised ethical questions on who gets access to Ebola treatment and why Africa is generally the last to receive life saving medicines.
Bioterrorismo: ¿Quién está detrás del brote de ébola?
The Liberian government like its neighbors have put strong measures in place under the codename Operation White Shield to halt Ebola and save thousands who are not infected. The Liberian capital Monrovia has turned into a semi-ghost town as most residents and visitors have avoided restaurants and are fearful of other residents who have non Ebola illnesses. In other major Liberian towns, whole families have been quarantined as well as in Monrovia. currently 5 counties quarantined few hundreds of residents. The Liberian Army has been called in to enforce measures that call for leaving dead Ebola patients and family members for the Health Ministry to pick up and for Liberian families to avoid burying their family members to halt the transmission of the virus from the decease to the family members and friends. As in most of the world, Liberian families insist on burying their family regardless of the dangers in Ebola and saying their final goodbyes. Even carrying their decease relatives back to their hometowns in the countryside. Some Ebola patients have ran away from hospitals in Lofa County. The burials have led to the rapid spread of Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Liberian government through the health ministry have started burning/cremating deceased Ebola patients following confrontations between city residents who refuse to comply with the ban on burying Ebola victims and some land owners who refuse to give their land over to the government to properly bury Ebola victims. Now some hospitals in Monrovia are set to reopen after public demands for the prolong closures. Isolation zones have been erected across Liberia's airport and borders in response to rapid Ebola spread in towns around the country. The same zones have also appeared in Guinea, Sierrea Leone and Nigeria. Nigerian governor Babatunde Fashola for Lagos State has begun a campaign of sensitization at public schools focused on personal hygiene and taking the Ebola threat seriously.
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