Tag Archives: Ebola

Living with Ebola in Sierra Leone: “It feels like the whole country is in quarantine”

November 5, 2014 at 2:28 PM
CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

By Solomon Sogbandi, Director of Amnesty International Sierra Leone.

Since the first cases of Ebola were reported in Mach, life in Sierra Leone has changed beyond recognition.

So far, the World Health Organization has confirmed more than 5,200 Ebola cases in Sierra Leone alone and more than 13,700 across the world. More than 4,500 people have died of the disease – 1,500 in my home country.

Friends abroad often ask me what life is like here at the moment.

I can only describe it as horrifying. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

African healthcare laid bare by Ebola epidemic

September 15, 2014 at 4:31 PM
A street artist, Stephen Doe, paints an educational mural to inform people about the symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus in the Liberian capital Monrovia ( DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

A street artist, Stephen Doe, paints an educational mural to inform people about the symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus in the Liberian capital Monrovia. ( DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

By Savio Carvalho, senior adviser on international development and human rights at Amnesty International.

Two years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Freetown and other parts of Sierra Leone where Amnesty International was training maternal health volunteers to monitor antenatal care. It was evident then that Sierra Leone’s health infrastructure was in a very poor state, undermined by years of war and lack of investment. But today, the outbreak of Ebola has meant that its struggling healthcare system, and others in neighboring African countries – particularly Liberia and Guinea – have been completely overwhelmed.

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