adminLONDON. — Doctors and nurses fighting Ebola in West Africa are working 14-hour days, seven days a week, wearing head-to-toe gear in the heat of muddy clinics.
Agonising death is the norm. The hellish conditions aren’t the only problem: Health workers struggle to convince patients they are trying to help them, not hurt them.
Rumours are rife that Western aid workers are importing Ebola, stealing bodies or even deliberately infecting patients. Winning trust is made harder by a full suit of hood, goggles, mask and gown that hides their faces.
“You want to say so much because they are in so much pain,” said nurse Monia Sayah, of Doctors Without Borders. “They suffer so much, but they can only see your eyes.”
The outbreak has hit three of the world’s poorest countries, where health systems there were already woefully understaffed and ill-equipped. In Liberia, there is only one doctor for every 100 000 people, while in Sierra Leone there are two, according to the World Health Organisation; there were no statistics available for Guinea.
The figure is 245 for the United States. Emotional distress conspires with exhaustion and dehydration, but doctors say it’s hard to stop working.
“When the need is so great, you can’t justify not being there for a day or going home earlier,” said Dr Robert Fowler, who recently worked in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The critical care doctor at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Canada — now on sabbatical with the World Health Organisation — said that the barrier of the protective suit is big but not insurmountable.
“There was a young girl, about six, who came in late in the illness who was bleeding from her bowels, very dehydrated and delirious,” he said. Ebola wiped out her immediate family – so she was all alone.
“She was very frightened and very reluctant to engage, and just wanted to push people away,” he said. Fowler spent days trying to help her, bringing her things she wanted like Fanta soda. “She eventually developed this sense that this person in the suit who’s a bit scary is trying to help me.”
One day he brought the girl her favourite dish: cucumbers and lime. “She chowed down,” he said — a sign that she was on the mend. Fowler said the girl was close to being discharged by the time he left Guinea. — Sapa-AP.
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