Dr. Paul Farmer and colleagues from Partners in Health and Last Mile Health visited Zwedru this month to start work on a new Ebola treatment center in Grand Gedeh County. Can you tell me more about that?
Dr. Farmer assured us they are standing with the citizens in the fight against Ebola. He is passionate about what the country is going through. We are very hopeful that it won't be long until he is back in the country to start work.
Africa
Dr. Paul Farmer Joins West Africa's Fight Against Ebola
The scope of intervention they have in mind is very important. Currently there is no treatment or testing center in the county. The Partners in Health testing and treatment center is very welcome. We look forward to working with such an organization and seeing our dreams realized.
The United States has started sending soldiers to build 17 Ebola treatment centers in Liberia. How are people reacting to this?
Given the experiences of the Liberian people in years of crisis, people will be a little bit apprehensive. What we learned so far is the military will establish Ebola treatment units in the country and mobile testing facilities. That is good news. Everybody is happy. But people are still speculating there might be another agenda other than establishing an Ebola treatment unit.
Liberia's chief medical officer, Dr. Bernice Dahn, placed herself and her staff in isolation last week after her assistant died of Ebola. What's your reaction to this news?
I'm not really worried. I think everybody knows what to do. But it sends out a very bad message. If the staff from the ministry is infected, it quite clearly demonstrates the weakness of the system. It will make people lose confidence in the system.
You and your family lived through Liberia's terrible years of civil war. How does this time of Ebola compare to those years?
We know exactly what it means when we talk about war. In a war, one can identify one's enemies and know how to escape. One can leave and hide. But you cannot hide from this. And if you hide with people in the bushes, the people you are hiding with may be infected. In a war, you can embrace others; you can care for each other. But this [Ebola crisis] is against intimate friendship and against love. In a war situation, caring for wounded family members is not limited by conditions such as is the case with Ebola. [In wartime] I have seen family members holding their wounded relatives in their arms, soaked in blood. Even as a health care worker, I have been overwhelmed with patients, wounded from war, soaked in blood, which I must care for with little or no PPEs such as gloves and without so strong a fear of being infected as is the case with Ebola. For many people, this is more than just war.
I will tell you something. The funny part — it is sad and funny — is if you ask people now between HIV or Ebola, what do you prefer, many will say, "We prefer HIV," even though there is no cure. This is how serious things are.
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