Ebola orphans a huge problem
AN AMERICAN doctor treated for Ebola, Kent Brantly, was discharged from Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital on Thursday after recovering from the deadly disease.
Another American aid worker, Nancy Writebol, was also discharged this week. She, too, managed to survive.
“God saved my life,” said Brantly, looking gaunt, at a press conference on Thursday. He thanked his medical team and the millions of people around the world for praying for his recovery. “Please do not stop praying for the people of west Africa.”
Both Brantly and Writebol received doses of an experimental drug, called Zmapp, which includes man-made antibodies against Ebola.
Although Zmapp has shown promise in animals, it has not until now been tested in humans. Experts have said it’s not possible to conclude that Zmapp cured their disease, although getting good supportive care at Emory, one of the world’s best hospitals, probably improved their chances of survival.
“If the question is, ‘ Did Zmapp do this?’ the answer is that we just don’t know,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
“People who are in much less sophisticated medical care conditions in west Africa are recovering 50 percent of the time.”
But for those Ebola victims in west Africa who are are not recovering, many are leaving behind orphaned children. These orphans are becoming a tragic legacy of the deadly outbreak in four west African nations, say relief organisations struggling to care for the children, who themselves may be infected.
They are “the poorest of the poor”, said Father Jorge Crisafulli of the Catholic nonprofit Salesian Missions. The group was asked to provide care for the orphans by the government of Sierra Leone.
Besides immediate needs such as food, the growing number of children whose families have been decimated by Ebola will probably face long-term stigma and discrimination in the future as aid groups try to reintegrate them into the community, said Christopher Tidey, a spokesman for Unicef, the UN Children’s Fund.
The outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and most recently Nigeria, has infected 2 240 people, killing at least 1 427, according to the World Health Organisation.
The number of new cases has been in triple digits in the last three updates from the health agency. Liberia has the most new cases.
About 55 percent of those have died, compared with about 60 percent earlier in the outbreak and as many as 90 percent in a previous one. The current epidemic, the worst on record, has strained the resources of governments and aid groups seeking to help the children, Crisafulli said.
“There are already 70 in need of immediate attention,” Crisafulli said of the orphans in Sierra Leone. “The number will increase.”
Feeding the children and providing adequate medical care would be an increasing problem. “We are asking the government what they can do,” Crisafulli said. “But they told us that it is very little.”
Salesian Missions said it may house the Ebola orphans in a school in Lungi, a town that’s home to the country’s only international airport. They can’t be brought into preexisting shelters for fear they’re infected, he said.
“A sick bay will be prepared and equipped in case children present symptoms like fever, vomiting or diarrhoea,” Crisafulli said.
Youths throughout the region were affected even if their families had not been infected, according to Unicef ’s Tidey.
Schools were closed because of the outbreak, and there was little chance they would get vaccinated for other diseases or receive regular health services because fear of Ebola was keeping many away from medical centres, he said.
The Salesians are calling for more local volunteers to help take care of the orphans.
Salesian Missions hires local people to help operate its programmes. The organisation has operated in Sierra Leone since 1979.
Relief organisations said their resources were already being stretched to the limit. – Washington Post-Bloomberg