By Dr Ernest Bai Koroma
 |
| President Ernest Bai Koroma |
Since the first
cases of the disease in Sierra Leone in May, over 2500 of our people have been
infected, of which there are a little over 530 survivors.
Our people are dying,
children are being orphaned, most of the dead are women and over two-thirds of
those infected belong to the most economically active age category of 15 to 50.
Children are not going to school; doctors and nurses are dying, and non-Ebola
illnesses are adding to the toll of death and suffering due to further
weakening of the healthcare system in the country.
This Round Table
is very important for us, the fight on the ground in Sierra Leone urgently
needs the support of people gathered here today to combat this virus; without
you we cannot succeed, without your quick response, a tragedy unforeseen in
modern times would threaten the wellbeing and compromise the security of people
everywhere.
This is not a
disease we brought upon ourselves. In Sierra Leone we were implementing
policies that were making our country one of the fastest growing economies in
the world when Ebola struck. Ebola is now causing great disruptions to
agricultural, mining, manufacturing, construction, tourism and transportation;
and posing a significant threat to human development, state security, and
poverty reduction. Government revenues are drying up; the livelihood of our
people compromised.
Most of the
resources expended so far in this fight have been our own resources. This is
changing, and we laud the World Bank for hosting this Round Table, for
increasing its allocation to our countries, and for speeding up its approval
processes to get resources to the ground. We laud our other partners for
infusing more urgency into their Ebola response.
The last few weeks
have indeed been weeks of massive concerns and commitments to fight the
outbreak. However, the general international response has up to this moment
been slower than the rate of transmission of the disease. This
slower-than-the-virus response needs to change. I am here to seek acceleration
of the translation of commitments to physical facts on the ground. That is what
is urgently needed now: commitments on paper and commitments during meetings
are good; but commitments as physical facts on the ground are best.
These are the
physical facts on the ground that must be urgently deployed in our race against
the virus:
1. A Community
Ebola Care and Holding Centre comprising 20 beds in each of our 149 chiefdoms
and 20 centres in the Western Area, giving a total of 169 Community Ebola
Care/Holding Centers.
2. Treatment
Centers: the country requires, strategically placed treatment centers holding a
total of 1500 more beds.
3. Personnel: The
1500 additional treatment center beds would require a recommended number of
5250 health personnel including 750 doctors, 3000 nurses and 1500 other support
staff of hygienists, counselors, and nutritionists. The Community Care Ebola
Centres also need trained health workers with medical doctors supervising a
cluster of them.
3. Equipment and
Logistics: These include PPEs, IV fluids, anti-bodies for super imposed
infections, food supplies, 200 ambulances to service the nation wide network of
treatment centres, and community Ebola care units, 1000 motor bikes for contact
tracers and 200 4WD utility vehicles for supervisors, surveillance officers,
and burial teams
4. Laboratories:
There are currently four customized Ebola labs in the country able to do less
than 150 samples per day. We need five more labs strategically located in the
country to enhance quick turn around from the taking of samples to the
presentation of results. Importantly also, support is required to ensure lab
safety for health workers and prevent samples from falling into wrong hands in
this age of terrorists who may seek to spread mayhem with the Ebola virus
through bio-terrorism.
5. Funds for
Incentives and other Expenses: Millions of dollars are also required to pay the
thousands of health workers that would be deployed; millions of dollars are
needed to shore up drug, food and other basic supplies and logistics.
6. Psychosocial
Support: The Ebola outbreak is devastating for children and women and
communities and these would need psychosocial support; orphans would need care,
widows require support, and survivors help with meeting the challenges of
stigmatization.
7. Other Support
Services: The fight requires communication support to facilitate contact
tracing, transmission of lab results, and general logistics chain management.
8. Sustainability:
We know that the present Ebola Response is an emergency response but
sustainability must be integrated into it in order to enable us to respond more
quickly to a recurrence of the Ebola after this current one. The literature
tells us that Ebola outbreak often recurs in all the countries that it had
manifested itself. This would require the medium term transformation of
makeshift centres into permanent ones; ongoing training of health personnel in
the country; and establishment of a National Public Health Institute with surge
capacities
9. Kick Starting
the Economy: the disruptions to economic activities pose a major challenge in
domestic revenue mobilization, investments, external trade and livelihoods.
Therefore, the support of multilateral financial institutions is critical in
addressing the emerging financing gaps in the fiscal and external sector
accounts of affected countries. Support is needed to enhance post Ebola investments,
restore livelihoods, prevent more suffering; and strengthen our capacity for
partnerships in peace-building, for good governance, and socio-economic
development.
We very much
welcome the establishment of UNMEER, and we salute the commitment to support
the fight with holistic sub-regional emphases. In furtherance of this, we are
proposing a sub regional Mano River Summit with UNMEER to tighten our plans,
bridge gaps and move forward. Ebola out of any of our countries is not really a
success until we get Ebola out of all our countries.
Distinguished
ladies and gentlemen, the situation is new, complex and evolving; current
deployments are not enough if we are to get ahead of the virus and stop it. Now
is the time for action in logistics, now is the time for action in establishing
and staffing additional treatment centers; now is the time for getting
clinicians, nurses, lab technicians and others on the ground; now is the time
for fast tracking the translation of commitments to positive facts of response on
the ground.
This is a race to get ahead of this evil virus; this is a race for
all of us. I am hopeful; we shall win this fight; we shall prevail; we have
already ensured hundreds of survivors, we have to ensure the survival of tens
of thousands more; we will kick Ebola out of our countries.
I thank you for
your attention.
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