Ebola drains already weak West African health systems
EMMZZY SUCCESS:NEWS
Abba Abashi, Liberian-Nigerian student: "My mum caught me crying"
The deadly Ebola virus ravaging Sierra Leone and Liberia has pushed already weak healthcare systems into intensive care.
While global efforts have been focused on Ebola, many people have failed to receive treatment for other diseases such as malaria and measles, and this has led to even more deaths, experts say.
"It's a vicious cycle," Sierra Leonean risk analyst Omaru Sisay told the BBC.
"Because of Ebola, cases of people not being treated for malaria, cholera and measles have increased significantly," he says.
Painting a similar picture about Liberia, the UN children's agency Unicef says Ebola has severely disrupted health services for children, caused schools to close and left thousands of children without a parent.
"Children are dying from measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases and pregnant women have fewer places to deliver their babies safely," it said in a statement.
Sierra Leone's health services were neglected because of conflict
Liberia has been badly affected by the outbreak - here a mother and daughter lie down near a treatment centre
Liberia risks an outbreak of water-borne diseases
The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, says that while statistics are not available, suspicion exists that some of the deaths attributed to Ebola have been caused by cholera, malaria, typhoid and other illnesses, as people either did not go to hospitals or were turned away by medical workers who feared that they carried the deadly virus.
He says with the rainy season under way, the government has in recent weeks taken steps to prevent a cholera outbreak by chlorinating wells in Monrovia.
Unicef estimates that 8.5 million children and young people under the age of 20 live in areas affected by Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Of these, 2.5 million are under the age of five.
- Liberia with a 4.2m population: 51 doctors; 978 nurses and midwives; 269 pharmacists
- Sierra Leone with a 6m population: 136 doctors; 1,017 nurses and midwives; 114 pharmacists
Source: Afri-Dev.Info
It is a cruel twist that Liberia and Sierra Leone have been worst affected by the deadliest ever Ebola outbreak, as the two countries were still recovering from brutal civil wars that decimated their infrastructure in the 1990s when the disease hit.
The virus spread from Guinea, which borders both nations. It has been far more effective in containing the outbreak because it has more resources and a "more resilient" health system, Mr Sisay says.
'Black bag doctors'
Similarly, Nigeria, one of Africa's wealthiest states, has contained the virus after it was brought to the country by a Liberian government worker travelling on a commercial airline.
Nigeria has been able to contain the outbreak
In contrast, Liberia and Sierra Leone are poor, with almost non-existent health systems.
Liberia has 51 doctors to serve the country's 4.2 million people (an average of 0.1 doctor per 10,000 people) and 136 for Sierra Leone's population of six million (an average of 0.2 per 10,000), according to data compiled by the Afri-Dev.Info health and social development agency.
May almighty God protect us from all this deadly disease.......
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