Ebola: Emergency NGO opens a treatment centre in Sierra Leone
Emergency doctors and nurses are already working round-the-clock at the Ebola treatment centre opened just 4 days ago in Lakka, in Sierra Leone.
So far, the centre has taken in 10 patients, and 2 suspect cases are on their way now from the province of Pujehun.
Don Emanuel, the Spanish priest brought to the Emergency centre last Friday, was taken back to his country this morning. He's in a critical condition.
His bed has already been taken over by Grace, a 38-year old woman whose test at the isolation unit of our Goderich Surgical Centre yesterday evening proved positive. Grace was 6 months pregnant, but she suffered a miscarriage just before being brought to Lakka.
The epidemic is quickly spreading throughout the country, but especially all around the capital, Freetown: official figures speak of over 1,500 sick people - an increase of 39% in the last three weeks.
In an attempt to stop the virus from advancing, the Sierra Leone government imposed a 3-day curfew starting from last Friday (19th September): everyone had to stay at home, public offices and businesses remained closed, and people were only allowed to use their cars for emergencies.
During this extremely hard time, the Emergency staff have carried on providing the necessary treatment for patients at the Lakka Centre and in the Surgical and Paediatric Centre in Goderich which, for the past 40 days and more, has been the only hospital up and running in the entire Freetown area.
All the staff, both national and international, are doing everything possible to face a serious humanitarian crisis that's without precedent in Sierra Leone, and of which nobody actually knows the true dimensions.
"Those who are ill and find the hospitals closed then go to the homes of the doctors they know, or to local healthcare figures who don't have the necessary protection: the risk of catching the disease is very high. The epidemic is spreading and there's a need for doctors, nurses and beds" says Luca Rolla, Emergency coordinator in Sierra Leone.
That's why Emergency is already working to open a new, bigger Ebola treatment centre in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health, as soon as possible.
(September 21, 2014)