Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, who is in Liberia to see the effects of Ebola first-hand, says travel restrictions imposed by Australia on West Africans are hampering the response to the epidemic.
More than 3,000 people have died from Ebola in Liberia and the country’s economic growth has halved.
US president Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve another $6 billion in emergency aid for the worst-hit nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Dr Di Natale has met with with Liberian and United Nations officials and has travelled to the country’s Ebola hot spots with the Red Cross.
He said Liberians were deeply hurt by the Federal Government’s decision in October to restrict the entry of West Africans into Australia and they felt the restrictions damaged efforts to attract international help.
“It sends precisely the opposite message that they’ve been trying to send and that is ‘we need people’. The people from Liberia need help,” Dr Di Natale said.
“We need to attract health workers. And when you’re sending messages out there that simply being Liberian puts others at risk, it really makes that job much harder.”
Dr Di Natale, who was previously a public health doctor, said Liberia’s health system has collapsed and people are now dying from preventable illnesses other than Ebola.
“We’re seeing hospitals shut down because health workers are no longer prepared to go and staff them,” he said.
“Schools are closed, so kids are out on the streets.
“People don’t touch each other anymore. Your instant reaction when you meet someone is to put your hand out.
“But I soon learnt you just don’t do that. It’s changed the way people relate to each other.”
Dr Di Natale accompanied Red Cross workers collecting bodies in the West Point slum in the capital Monrovia.
He said the workers conducting the grim task were heroes.
“There was a death reported in a market. We arrived there… They put on their protective equipment, the heat is stifling,” he said.
“They spray and decontaminate the area, they spray the body.
“They have to swab the mouth of the deceased person to get confirmation as to whether it’s Ebola or not.”
But he said many people have become desensitised to death.
Another issue is the remoteness of some outbreaks.
In some cases health workers have to walk for five hours to reach villages were there are suspected Ebola casualties.
“In those settings, the need to get a swab to a laboratory is just not possible because again the access is a major issue,” Dr Di Natale said.
He said helicopters need to be brought in as part of the response.
The Federal Government has committed $20 million to set up an Ebola field hospital in Sierra Leone, on top of $18 million for aid agencies dealing with the outbreak in West Africa.