The senior health adviser for the Red Cross in Sierra Leone says she is embarrassed by the Australian Government’s response to the Ebola crisis.
Australian Amanda McClelland runs the organisation’s treatment Centre in Kenema, and told The World Today she was surprised the Government was not sending medical teams into Sierra Leone, and its blanket ban on issuing visas to people travelling from those countries.
West African states have criticised the decision to shut Australia’s border, saying the move stigmatises healthy people and makes the fight against the disease more difficult.
“I am surprised … but more embarrassed, to be honest,” she said.
“It’s difficult to be here and sit with the Sierra Leone government and have them today ask me, ‘am I going to be allowed to come home?'”
She said it was particularly galling for her as she was desperately short staffed and was now calling on Ebola survivors to help.
“I’m asking taxi drivers and students to deal with Ebola, and the Australian Government is not sending doctors and nurses with 16 years of education,” she said.
“And to be honest, I’m a bit embarrassed that we don’t feel that our health system and our health personnel are qualified and professional enough to manage this.
“I mean, the Australian health care system is more than robust enough to respond quickly – if and when – a case came.
“And I think we have some of the best medical professionals in the world and experience in working in these types of environments.”
Ms McClelland was training Ebola survivors to help treat their country men and women with the deadly disease.
One of the nurses, Hawa Jollah, told The World Today she feared she would die when she caught the virus in June.
“I was vomiting profusely. I was having red eyes. I cannot recognise people. I can recognise you from your voice, but I cannot see you,” she said.
Survivors fighting spread of Ebola
Edwin Konuwa, an Ebola survivor and nurse, was working in the Kenema Ebola centre.
“Everybody was crying for me and were told I am dead. Overnight my condition changed and I could eat and have water,” Mr Konuwa said.
He said he was not scared of Ebola anymore and wants to help patients.
“It’s not difficult for me because I know procedures and my precautions.”
Amanda McClelland told The World Today 12 of the new trainees were former nurses, all of whom were Ebola survivors.
“And we’ve actually had several survivors, [who] are not nurses, come back to the unit in the last two days and ask if they could help as well.”
The great advantage of training survivors was that they had more immunity to the disease, and could help others, particularly the children of Ebola victims, without as much fear of infection.
“We had a terrible situation last week where we had a mother with two small children, there was no-one left in the family,” Ms McClelland said.
“We had a large cluster of cases after an unsafe burial, and the whole family was sick or had already died. And no-one in the community would take these children.
“The mother was dying and the children were in there. We saw the children were covered in their mother’s faeces, and we went straight in and we cleaned them up.
“The little boy is Ebola free – amazingly enough – which is a huge benefit for us morally and amazing for the kids involved.”
Ms McClelland had a full staff roster but that was a week-to-week proposition.
“To be honest, we’re ok for this week but we’re not ok for next week. And we’re definitely not ok as we get closer to Christmas,” she said.
The Sierra Leone and Liberian governments condemned the Australian Government for generating unnecessary panic about Ebola.
Ms McClelland said she was concerned at least three health professionals, who were due to fill her roster next week, may now not come.
But she said health professionals knew the science and were not put off by the scare-mongering, though their families were.
“I feel quite safe here. It’s not like Mogadishu or other places I’ve been. It’s not so much ‘brave’ as ‘just needs to be done’, I guess.”