Too many dying in Sierra Leone as result of Ebola response not virus itself – report

THE GUARDIAN  by Sarah Boseley                                                                  April 28, 2015

Too many people are dying in Sierra Leone not from Ebola but as a result of the response to it, according to a report on the collapse of healthcare in the west African country.

Health workers at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, last November. Photograph: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

Ebola has killed at least 3,900 people in Sierra Leone so far, but the epidemic has critically damaged the ability of the country’s limited healthcare system to cope with anything else, including soaring HIV and tuberculosis rates.

More people are believed to have died from malaria than from Ebola, while deaths of mothers and babies in childbirth are thought to have risen significantly.

Health and medical staff have been drawn away from their clinics into the Ebola response effort and the population has lost confidence in their health centres and hospitals. Attendance at clinics has plummeted by more than 70%.

The grim picture of a healthcare system in meltdown comes from a report from the charity Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which carried out a detailed investigation in the Moyamba region where it was running an Ebola treatment centre. The report’s author, British doctor James Elston, says there is every reason to believe the situation is the same or worse in every region of Sierra Leone.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/28/too-many-dying-sierra-leone-response-ebola-report