The National Ebola Response Center (NERC) has warned against stigmatization of Ebola survivors.
Sierra Leone currently has over four thousand people who survived the viral hemorrhagic fever disease since it broke out in May last year. And as the end of the year-long epidemic nears in sight, attention is gradually being focused on survivors who are making numerous complaints around how society treats them.
NERC Chief Executive Officer Retired Major Alfred Palo Conteh, speaking last week at his weekly press briefing, said surviving Ebola was an “extraordinary victory” and so survivors should be considered as heroes rather being stigmatized.
“The sigma they face and nasty, unfounded suspicions undermine their chances to return to normal life...” said Conteh.
The NERC CEO said government was aware of long-term medical and non-medical problems that Ebola survivors were faced with. He revealed that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation was presently working with some development partners to ensure those problems were addressed.
A week earlier, an emergency scientific meeting on the needs of Ebola survivors convened by the World Health Organization in Freetown estimated that over 13, 000 people had saurvived the disease the three countries worst hit by the disease - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The purpose of the WHO meeting, which brought together clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists, and other public health practitioners, was to produce a ‘Comprehensive Care Plan for EVD Survivors’ and identify research needed to optimize clinical care and social well-being.
“When people who survived Ebola virus disease leave the Ebola treatment unit (ETU), everybody celebrates. However, emerging from the ETU is just the beginning of their long, hard journey,” Dr Anders Nordstrom, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone, said in a statement released by the country office.
“The Ebola outbreak has decimated families, health systems, economies, and social structures. All need to recover,” he said.
Dr Nordstrom said the situation the UN organization was faced with was new. Nevertheless, he said the organization had a unique and important responsibility to provide care and support for Ebola survivors trying to restart their normal lives.
Dr Nordstrom said a new research has shown that survivors were most commonly faced with severe joint pains, eye problems leading to loss of vision in some cases, severe fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, and mental health challenges after recovery from acute Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
However, Nordstrom said there were very limited data on the types and frequency of the various reported health problems by survivors, or the best practices for clinical management.
“It is increasingly clear that emerging from an ETU is just the beginning. The countries affected by Ebola also have a long road to recovery,” said the WHO Representative.
Dr Daniel Bausch, a representative of the WHO clinical care team, described the present situation in the three countries as” an emergency within an emergency,” He said it was the responsibility of the UN organization to help people not just survive but thrive.
The WHO representatives recommended that health care systems should be built up to ensure this.
(C) Politico 14/08/15
