EBOLA HAS NO CURE HOWEVER THERE ARE PREVENTIVE MEASURES-LETS WORK TOGETHER
Shortly after the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, when it seemed like bad news was the only news, Good Deeds Alliance Foundation field team in Guinea started to receive reports of something that seemed almost impossible given the climate. Ebola victims were being released from the hospital, completely recovered. They were healthy and even given certificates signed by health authorities stating that they could safely return to normal life.
Even though that seemed impossible, however, there they were: folks, weak and glancing in the bright sunlight but healthy, emerging from isolation wards. And not just the lucky few we expected, but more than 30 per cent of those infected were surviving.
However, Ebola has turned cities into ghost towns for example, my colleagues and I travelled upcountry to one of the worst affected areas of Sierra Leone – Kenema. When we arrived in the town, there’s a terrible feeling that Ebola has taken over with plans to conquer other territories. Chlorine buckets sit outside most restaurants for folks to wash their hands; Ebola information posters are plastered on buildings; Radio’s and TV’s are loudly broadcasting conversations about Ebola; people are talking about it ceaselessly on the street and people have stopped their normal way of greeting: handshaking (they now brush the elbows). Moreover, spending a few days around people who have been tragically affected by this disease was an unforgettably sad experience. I was however heartened by meeting some of the lucky people who are surviving Ebola.
Most worryingly, the Ebola ward of Kenema Hospital is now packed to capacity with 45 Ebola patients and numbers growing each day; however stories of survivors are starting to emerge regularly. Each day at around 15.00 pm, those who survive are released from the Ebola treatment centre located on the grounds of the hospital – it is a moment of unlikely joy and relief, in a place where so much tragedy exists.
John (7 years ) on the day he left the Ebola treatment centre.
John 7, is a reminder of hope and survival in an otherwise deeply tragic situation. He was in the treatment centre at Kenema for more than one month after contracting the virus in Daru village about 40 km out of Kenema town, and one of the worst affected communities in Sierra Leone.
Most worryingly, however, most ill people do not make it for example, 11 years old Lucy is very ill . The virus stole into the girl's house , invisible as death, and brutally killed her grandmother, uncle and great-aunt. There were dark rumours everywhere that Ebola was witchcraft. Soon her mother and aunt fell sick too. Good Deeds Alliance Foundation and Health workers came and talked to the family for a long time. Then we put on yellow heavy plastic suits, white plastic aprons, masks and bibs and took 11-year-old Lucy and her mother and aunt away in an ambulance (and everybody knew that when they took you away, you never came back).
Lucy's story, recounted by her nurse, epitomizes the fear — and sometimes bravery — that comes with the epidemic. In the treatment centre’s isolation ward, things got worse for Lucy's family. Her mother, feeling awfully depressed and hopeless, gave up, waiting for death. Her aunt was also in the same situation and believed that she was going to die. “No, you're not,” Lucy insisted-tears on her big brown eyes. “We are fighters and God is on our side-and will never fail us”.
This little girl’s faith and encouragement gave her mum and aunt hope (When her mother or aunt lost hope, she kept persuading them. She told them to keep drinking water) and after a while at the isolation centre, they survived however little Lucy, still infectious, had to stay on in an isolation facility and later died of Ebola Virus.
In the town , people are afraid, however, these vulnerable people have a right to be afraid: Only about 40% of those sickened in the outbreak have survived; in previous outbreaks, the mortality rate has been as high as 90%. We have met families destroyed by this virus. There were babies whom we sadly watched die. We saw no child younger than 4 survive Ebola.
For us the hardest thing is seeing children in the isolation units. Toys are placed in the beds with them, and the cribs are placed near windows, so people outside the unit can wave.
Most worryingly, these little children have lost their parents and we worry how they will survive in one of the poorest regions in the world.
Worryingly, some survivors are shunned when they return to their villages. Many face a financial struggle, having lost their family breadwinners. The impact on these families, outside the emotion and trauma of their loss, is that the people who are most affected are typically young and strong because they're the ones taking care of the sick all day.
HELP NEEDED: EBOLA HAS NO CURE HOWEVER THERE ARE PREVENTIVE MEASURES-LETS WORK TOGETHER
Good deeds Alliance Foundation is responding to an outbreak of deadly Ebola, that started in Guinea in March and has now crossed the border into Sierra Leone and Liberia (Cases in Nigeria too). Communities living in remote areas in the Kailahun district and in three further vulnerable districts - Pujehun, Koinadugu and Kambia are at particular risk.
Ebola is a highly contagious disease that kills up to 90 per cent of those it infects. It is transmitted through human-to-human contact and although there is no cure or vaccine (yet), it is preventable. The initial infection comes from contact with a contaminated animal and symptoms include fever, vomiting, muscle aches and diarrhoea.
'It's a race against time to respond quickly and contain it as there is no cure and the mortality rate is so high.'
WHAT WE NEED:
1) Volunteers: we need expert health practitioner’s that will join our field workers on the ground to educate, isolate sick people, train Nurses and treat sick people-wanna join? contact us.
2) We need medical suits,surgical gears, gloves and medical jackets that will prevent health workers from contaminating Ebola virus( while saving lives, many have contaminated the deadly virus and died) .
3) We need disinfectants, soaps, water; detachable toilets and bathrooms (for sanitation) in order to help poor communities to improve their hygiene and thus help prevent the disease and subsequently eradicate it.
4) We need money ( any amount is ok -no matter how much) in order to help displaced families and children recover and build a new life- please note that most breadwinners are dead.
SEND YOUR DONATIONS online (Via Credit Card/Paypal ) at http://www.gooddeedsalliancefoundation.org/see-our-work/image-photo/
Or TO:
Bank: CommerzBank
Account name : Good Deeds Alliance e.V
Account Number: 761345800
IBAN : DE88 7604 0061 0761 3458 00
BIC : COBADEFF
Charity Register number :Amtsgericht Nürnberg : VR 201502
File Number: 1172R/2013
Good Deeds Alliance Foundation is a German based Charity that helps vulnerable women and children around the world-mostly in underdeveloped countries. Please Join us and save lives.
Remember that a tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Source: Good Deeds Alliance Foundation.
http://www.gooddeedsalliancefoundation.org/see-our-work/image-photo/
REMEMBER: EBOLA HAS NO CURE HOWEVER THERE ARE PREVENTIVE MEASURES-LETS WORK TOGETHER.
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