GNARNGA, LIBERIA, August 14 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – An inadequate supply of basic medical equipment, such as protective gloves and face masks, is contributing to the rapid spread of Ebola in Liberia, one of the country’s leading community activists has told RIA Novosti.
“An inadequate supply of protective gloves, face masks, etcetera and lack of awareness of the symptoms of Ebola among health workers in particular and the population in general, has contributed immensely to the rapid spread of Ebola in Liberia,” Frankin Siakor, a former Liberian Senator said.
The outbreak of the deadly disease began at the start of the year but it took some time before local health officials and World Health Organization (WTO) representatives identified it as Ebola.
Siakor told RIA Novosti that a lack of basic medical equipment was hampering efforts to tackle the outbreak and that many hospitals and medical centers were full or had been forced to close.
“The Ebola holding centers at JFK Medical Centre in Monrovia, ELWA Hospital run by Samaritan Purse in Monrovia and the government owned Rennie Hospital in Kakata are all full,” Siakor said. “I heard St Joseph Catholic Hospital is closing. They lost four sisters and one priest.”
“Construction work on the Ebola holding center near Phebe has not started. Save the Children are waiting for the local government to clear the site,” Siakor added.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that over 1000 people have died since the outbreak began and issued its most dire warnings yet that the disease is spreading rapidly across West Africa.
In a statement WHO said it was “finalizing its strategic operations response plan and expects to share this with countries and partners in the coming days.”
Siakor told RIA Novosti that the crisis is deepening and entire communities, now quarantined, needed urgent basic supplies of food and other essentials.
“Lots of people are dying in the homes in and around Gbarnga,” Siakor said. “Some survivors from communities in Gbarnga have fled quarantined communities to live in their villages in remote areas. Whole villages are being infected.”
“At least one village was quarantined last week for 22 days observation. But they have no access to the market to buy food and other basic things like salt, soap, etcetera,” Siakor added. “People have to buy rice in the stores because we are in the rainy season which is also the hungry season in Liberia. Farmers have planted and have no rice left in stock.”
There were also reports, Thursday, of firing in Bomi, a county in the North West of Liberia and Siakor told RIA Novosti that officials were reporting that local young men in Lofa – the county where the first case in Liberia was discovered in March – were setting up road blocks to prevent non-residents, including health workers, from entering their villages.
“More people are dying with Ebola symptoms in Gbarnga, while others flee to hide in villages while the government is deploying troops along the border and in between counties heavily infested,” Siakor told RIA Novosti.
