Wellnesshealthy livingebola-health-workersebola-volunteers

Health Care Volunteers From Nigeria Join The Fight Against Ebola

Health Care Volunteers From Nigeria Join The Fight Against Ebola
Reuters
Volunteer Nigerian health workers on a mission to fight the Ebola virus in affected West African countries, sit during a send off ceremony and the launch of an African initiative operating under the hash tag #AfricaAgainstEbola, in Lagos, on December 3, 2014. Two hundred and fifty volunteer Nigerian medical corps under the auspices of the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) were given a send off to fight the Ebola Virus Diseases in the affected three West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The African Union, which is collaborating with the private sector to raise funds to support and strengthen the Unions response to the crises, is sending more than 1000 health workers before Christmas. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Volunteer Nigerian health workers on a mission to fight the Ebola virus in affected West African countries, sit during a send off ceremony and the launch of an African initiative operating under the hash tag #AfricaAgainstEbola, in Lagos, on December 3, 2014. Two hundred and fifty volunteer Nigerian medical corps under the auspices of the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) were given a send off to fight the Ebola Virus Diseases in the affected three West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The African Union, which is collaborating with the private sector to raise funds to support and strengthen the Unions response to the crises, is sending more than 1000 health workers before Christmas. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)

By James Harding Giahyue and Umaru Fofana

MONROVIA/FREETOWN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - More than 175 Nigerian medics arrived in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday to join the fight against Ebola, the first of 600 volunteers promised by the regional giant which contained its own outbreak earlier this year.

The medics will boost weak local health systems that are also struggling to contain other preventable diseases as Ebola discourages people from going to clinics for fear of contracting the fever.

The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed at least 6,187 people in the three worst-affected countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - according to the latest data from the World Health Organization.

"This is the African spirit you are showing, this is the Nigerian spirit," Nigeria's ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, told 76 Nigerian medics who landed there.

Another 100 volunteers landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Months into the Ebola response, experts say they are still short of medical personnel to staff treatment centers.

The United Nations said one of its peacekeepers in Liberia had contracted Ebola, making him the third infected member of the mission. The two others have both died.

Sixteen people who came into contact with the peacekeeper while he was symptomatic had been identified, the United Nations said.

The condition of an Italian doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was flown home last month has worsened, a Rome hospital said on Friday.

Liberia - the country with the highest number of cases - has succeeded in lowering infection rates, and the virus is now spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. The former British colony recorded 537 new cases in the week to Nov. 30.

U.N. child agency UNICEF on Friday began a campaign to provide 2.4 million people in Sierra Leone with anti-malarial drugs to ease the strain on the healthcare system and allow Ebola cases to be identified more easily. The two diseases have similar symptoms, including headaches, fever and aching joints.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued an order banning rallies and public meetings ahead of a Senate election scheduled for later this month, saying the move was part of the fight against Ebola.

Amid signs of a slowdown in the epidemic in Guinea - where the virus was first detected in March - neighboring Guinea-Bissau said it would reopen their shared border by next week. (Additional reporting by Alphonso Toweh in Monrovia, Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva and Alberto Dabo in Bissau; Writing by David Lewis and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Related

healthy livingebola-health-workersebola-volunteersreutersebola outbreak

Before You Go

James and Tamah Mulbah
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor James Mulbah, 2, stands with his mother, Tamah Mulbah, 28, who also recovered from Ebola in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center, after a survivors' meeting on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia.
Benetha Coleman
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Benetha Coleman, 24, stands in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center after attending a survivors' meeting on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. She said that her husband and two children died due to the disease.
Jeremra Cooper
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Jeremra Cooper, 16, wipes his face from the heat while in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. The 8th grade student said he lost six family members to the Ebola epidemic before coming down sick with the disease himself and being sent to the MSF center, where he recovered after one month.
Zaizay Mulbah and Mark Jerry
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivors Zaizay Mulbah, 34, and Mark Jerry, 30, right, stand together before their shifts as nurse's assistants at the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on October 12, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. Jerry was a money changer and Mulbah a delivery driver before they caught the disease and went to the center, where they recovered. Doctors Without Borders hired them afterward to counsel and comfort others stricken by the disease.
Eric Forkpa
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Eric Forkpa, 23, stands in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center after meeting with fellow survivors on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. The college student, who is majoring in civil engineering, said he thinks he caught Ebola while caring for his sick uncle, who died of the disease. He spent 18 days at the center recovering from the virus.
Emanuel Jolo
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Emanuel Jolo, 19, stands in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center after a survivors' meeting on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. The high school student lost six family members and believes he caught the disease while washing the body of his father, who died of Ebola.
Sontay Massaley
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Sontay Massaley, 37, smiles upon her release from the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on October 12, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. Massaley, who spent 8 days recovering from the disease in the center, said she worked as a vendor in a market before contracting the virus.
Victoria Masah
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Victoria Masah, 28, stands in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on October 16, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. She said her husband and two children died of Ebola.
Abrahim Quota
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Abrahim Quota, 5, stands outside the JFK Ebola treatment center after recovering from the disease on October 13, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. He had arrived at the treatment center 10 days before with his parents, who both died there from the virus. The Ministry of Health was to deliver him home after his release to live with relatives.
Lassana Jabeteh
John Moore via Getty Images
Ebola survivor Lassana Jabeteh, 36, smiles before his shift as a nurse's assistant at the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on October 12, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia. He said that he previously worked as a taxi driver and that he thinks he caught Ebola when he transported a sick policeman who vomited in his car on the way to the hospital. Doctors Without Borders hired Jabeteh after he recovered in their treatment center and he now counsels and comforts others stricken by the disease.
|
Submit a tip

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE