Chaos and fear overtake Liberia’s Ebola response
A raid on a holding center is the latest setback in the government’s faltering efforts to fight the deadly virus
by Clair MacDougall
Aljazeera.com
August 19, 2014
MONROVIA, Liberia — Michel Boima lay on a thin mattress on the concrete floor as dim blue light reflected from the walls and tarpaulins covered the brick windows. Asked whether he thought his condition would improve, Michel looked up and said, “No treatment.” Aside from water and food, he had received no medical attention or medication since arriving early that morning.
Michel was one of 18 patients in this school turned temporary holding center for suspected Ebola patients in West Point, a poor neighborhood in the Liberian capital. His father, Fallah Boima, a wiry farmer, paced outside the building as motorbikes zoomed past. The veins on Fallah’s forehead were sharp with worry. He said he was uncertain what to do and what would happen to his son.
Five days earlier, on Aug. 9, Michel, a 19-year-old motorbike driver in Monrovia, had ridden to his father’s town in the bush and reported stomach pain. Soon, Michel was suffering from constant diarrhea and a high fever and had stopped eating. As his condition worsened, Fallah isolated his son in a room in his house and took care not to touch him. He knew his son could be infected with Ebola, the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has killed at least 712 across West Africa and likely infected 2,127 people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Liberia alone, there have been 413 deaths and 786 probable, confirmed or suspected cases, although the WHO says the actual number may be much higher.
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