Sierra Leone will combat Ebola return with improved health system

A mother and child attend a health check in Freetown in 2014 during the Ebola epidemic
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Ebola has returned to Africa but experts believe Sierra Leone — one of three countries worst hit by the virus two years ago — is “fully ready” to combat its return.

This month more than 25 people died from Ebola in Mbandaka, in Democratic Republic of Congo.

An experimental vaccine is being administered by the World Health Organisation in a bid to contain the disease, which killed 11,310 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2014 and 2016.

At the time its spread was fuelled by lack of knowledge about transmission of the virus via body fluid, eating bushmeat, and few sterile hospitals. Ex-defence minister Palo Conteh, who led the National Ebola Response Centre during the crisis, said an improved health system and nationwide surveillance should mean minimal loss of life should it return to Sierra Leone.

A baby who died from the disease is carried away
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He said: “We would need international support but not like in 2014 and 2015. When we had Ebola in May of 2014 it showed up our health system. But now we do lots of surveillance work. We are keeping an eye on Congo but I think we are fully ready.”

GP Michael Bryant, 32, who led a women’s centre in Freetown diagnosing suspected cases, said: “There are a lot of screening tents ready, so the country would be ready to fight it off much, much better than before — a lot of lessons have been learned.”

However, David Knight, 59, a GP from Basingstoke on a sabbatical, added: “The way hygiene’s conducted in hospitals and peripheral health units is still not good. Most people feel the environment is still ripe for it. But I do think if Ebola rears its head people will resort to good practices.”

The consequences of the epidemic are still felt and charities continue to work with victims. During the crisis many quarantined themselves, leading to the collapse of businesses and income, and children of victims were abandoned by other relatives who feared they were infected.

According to London-based charity Street Child about a third of 12,000 young people orphaned by Ebola now live on the streets. It works to get them into education and find caregivers in their extended family.

Miriam, who was eight when her mother died from the virus and she was abandoned by her father, spent four years as sex worker. Last year, aged 11, she became pregnant and arrived at hospital in agony. Street Child paid for her care and she is bringing up her son and learning tailoring. She said: “I had sex to get food. They were bad people, big men. They took my money and beat me.”

Tom Dannatt, chief executive of Street Child, said: “Ebola still takes its toll. In a village school I asked children to put their hands up how many lost a mama or a papa, and half did.”

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