By Tracy Bowden
Australians have joined the battle against the deadly Ebola virus raging through West Africa, which has now claimed more than 2,800 lives.
Amid warnings that the number of people infected could reach 1.4 million by January, aid agencies say a massive input of resources on the ground is the only hope of controlling the epidemic.
Australian nurse Libby Bowell is based in Liberia with the International Federation of the Red Cross.
“We feel really desperate,” she told ABC’s 7.30 program.
“There are moments where you think: doesn’t anybody know what is going on?
“I don’t know how much clearer to say it. We need more people on the ground.”
The team Ms Bowell is helping coordinate has two key roles – the collection of dead bodies and community care.
With people being turned away from the treatment centres, locals are being taught how to care for their own without becoming infected.
“Some of the most tragic stories are when too many people try to look after somebody in a community and then we hear stories of five or as many as 10 people being infected, and we have got to stop that,” Ms Bowell said.
But she said the strict safety measures in place make that job even harder.
“I’ve been in the community and it’s very hard not to go within a metre of people when people are sad, they are crying and distressed and you can’t comfort them other than with words. It’s tough,” she said.
Psychologist Malcolm Hugo has just returned to his Adelaide home after a two month stint with medical aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières in Sierra Leone.
His work focused on providing support for the sick and their families as well as arranging care for children orphaned by the disease.
“There is probably hardly a family that hasn’t been touched in some way by somebody dying,” Dr Hugo said.
“It’s having a huge impact on the local economies; schools are closed, industries are closed… it’s having a huge effect on communities.”
Dr Hugo said the majority of staff in the treatment centres were locals and the hygienists face probably the toughest job of all.
“They were the ones that had to prepare the dead bodies, put them in body bags, and this was extremely stressful for them and also culturally inappropriate for them to be dealing with bodies in this way,” he said.
Calls for Australia to offer more assistance
Aid agencies say they need 20 times the resources currently on the ground.
The US has pledged $70 million and 3,000 troops and other countries have offered to send medical teams.
The Australian Government has offered money, but the Australian head of Médecins Sans Frontières, Paul McPhun, said it needed to do more.
“There is no reason I can see why Australia couldn’t follow the leadership of the United States, United Kingdom, China and Cuba and actually be a part of an international response on the ground,” he said.
“We need a massive mobilisation of specialised and general medical support, and expert logistics capacity.”
Australian scientists are also playing their part, joining the global quest for a vaccine.
At the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, the CSIRO’s Dr Glenn Marsh is leading a team comparing two different Ebola viruses – the one raging through West Africa and a much less harmful virus.
“If we understand the differences between these two viruses and why one doesn’t cause disease then we may be able to develop therapeutics that can then trigger the body to respond differently when it is infected with an African Ebola virus,” Dr Marsh said.
A separate team in the UK has begun human trials of a possible vaccine which, if effective, could be fast-tracked for use in West Africa later this year.
But aid organisations say what they need right now is more treatment units and more people to staff them.
They say without a huge input of resources, what is being called the greatest peacetime challenge the United Nations has ever faced, is set to worsen.
If you would like to make a donation to help the fight against Ebola you can visit the following websites: www.redcross.org.au, www.unicef.org.au, www.msf.org.au.
Watch Tracy Bowden’s story on 7.30 tonight.