Block By Block, Health Workers Lead Liberia To Victory Over Ebola

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Sat, 2015-05-09 08:08 — mike kraft

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO by Jason Beaubein May 9, 2015

MONROVIA -They were the ones who went door to door to stop the spread of Ebola. They were accused of passing on the virus and had water hurled at them. They were the community health workers — the unsung heroes of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia.

Caroline Williams is a community organizer in New Kru Town, a suburb of Monrovia. Here's how she got her message through to Liberians about preventing Ebola: "We talk to them, talk to them, talk to them. At last they started listening to us. All the methods that we been giving them, by God's will, they accepted."Jason Beaubien/NPR

During the darkest days of the epidemic, the West Point slum in Monrovia became a battle ground over Ebola. Last August, as people were dying in the streets from the disease, residents of West Point trashed a shelter for people infected with the virus. The government responded by slapping a quarantine on the entire township. Riots ensued, but in the background there was still a deadly epidemic to fight.

Now, more than a half-year later, things have turned around.... the World Health Organization announced that Liberia is finally Ebola-free.

And it's thanks, in large part, to the volunteers whose messages at first fell on deaf ears.

Read complete story.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/05/08/405200905/block-by-block-health-workers-lead-liberia-to-victory-over-ebola

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