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

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

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.

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%….

Since Ebola there is a lack of trust between both doctors and patients; doctors are wary of who and what they are treating and patients are fearful of who’s treating them and what might happen if they are suspected of having Ebola…

“Everyone is rightly focusing hard on getting Ebola cases down to zero but a very real public health emergency happening around them is being ignored”

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