they do to us bill out of the bully
centers are filled so what we are doing
is to try to ensure that we encourage
the city we don't want that scenario and
set out a lot of dead bodies in the
street of morovia
and nobody's picking up
so when it's a West Point right now
which is the largest slum in Monrovia
Ebola hasn't hit there harder than it's
hit anywhere else but the government
tried to quarantine it about a month ago
and riots broke out a treatment center
was looted and the Army actually opened
fire and killed a child so there's a lot
of distrust of the government there
Liberia is still recovering from two
brutal civil wars fought from 1989 to
2003 additionally many Liberians also
see their government as wilfully corrupt
with even President Ellen Sirleaf
Johnson admitting corruption was endemic
both of these reasons contribute to the
lack of trust in the government and help
explain why relations between the
community of West Point and authorities
are so strained we're on our way to
reach Katie miler who runs a
tuition-free school for vulnerable girls
in West Point in recent weeks her
organization more than me has shifted to
dealing with stopping the spread of
Ebola in West Point this includes
creating awareness teams who go out and
spread information on the virus I mean
is it getting better here or is it
getting worse is the awareness helping
well what's getting better is that as
the disease and the virus is actually
spreading and getting worse than the
thing is that people have changed their
minds it's been a lot of chaos here and
that is because there hasn't been a lot
of communication the awareness team
really just started recently like within
the last week so I mean you had weeks
where people were not really getting
information and every single day you
have 20 cases yesterday 40 cases today
and you know that tomorrow it's gonna be
70 so you know every day it's like more
and more people and I know these sound
like numbers but when it's like my
neighbor for example this morning I went
to his house and he was sick I was able
to give him drugs but he he died this
afternoon it's like these are real
people with real stories and in real
life
we are doing uh Turkish funding that is
we are trying to get all of the sick
people Archie is spearheading the effort
in West Point and has been leading teams
around the community people have been
taking off the voting centers from
voting centers after screening they are
taking to the teaching the emergency or
treatment unit but for now all of the
dtu's are they did to us bill all of the
holy symbols are filled so what we are
doing is to try to ensure that we engage
them at home we encourage the sick at
pain our cheese team focuses on contact
tracing which locates sick people and
tries to find out who came in contact
with them and they also have been
infected so they can be monitored as
well so what can you do for her
trying to ensure that why she's here she
can be getting some maximum to be
ticking yeah she can be getting can't
you keep wash cream then as soon as we
get available space back there we can
use the ambulance to take aa secretly
and who's taking care of her I mean her
daughter is young she's here does she
know how to how to take care of it does
she know not to touch her and not go to
a body to be okay I just got to do a
body to be yeah so the next thing we're
gonna do now is to talk to one person
how to take care of halt and how they
are going to go or you know in taking
care of home okay what are all those
steps preventive stand little tick to
not harm yourself in problem 2
okay we're gonna do that to be so you're
gonna educate the family here about how
to take care of the ticket we are going
to have the nurses coming into closer
look at her there will also be out there
trying to ensure that we found space
quickly that I'm going to go to the
hospital
Ebola has an incubation period of
anywhere from 2 to 21 days after coming
in contact with it meaning that it
sometimes doesn't become apparent
someone has it until three weeks later
unfortunately in a poor neighborhood
like West Point there's also lots of
other diseases like cholera malaria that
show similar symptoms to Ebola adding to
the challenge of contact tracing look at
the face believe for instance if in WA
is whispered it sounded all of that is
what is very stink yeah so you're saying
there's a lot of disease here anyway
different diseases but not in burlap
so you believe Ebola exists you just
don't think it's in West Point I believe
in bola is real but not in words but not
in West Point okay but don't you think
that if you don't take the precautions
maybe Ebola will come here that is true
we're heading to meet Sam the data
manager for more than me and another one
of the staff leaders working in West
Point he recently returned to Liberia
from decades of living abroad in America
everything happening right now why are
you sticking around why are you in in
West Point you know trying to give your
time and help out you know because our
people need help our people need hope
you know and I think the people need
individuals that they can trust right I
think part of the problem here not
believing Ebola is real
this game for the government to take
money because they don't trust the guy
with the awareness teams or going
door-to-door checking on sick people
only got a call a prisoner man who was
arrested was in court started throwing
up and they think he's sick and the
whole courthouse cleared out so they're
trying to figure out what to do with him
right now but it's sort of you know this
is what it is here it's chaos some
people don't really know how to respond
all the time and what to do how to how
to cope with this the ambulance finally
showed up no small feat considering
there's also an ambulance shortage in my
road Ward displays like this however
sometimes further strain community
relations and lead to stigma for Ebola
victims despite the chaotic scenes in
West Point and outside treatment centers
in most of Monrovia life moved along as
normal as a coup it wasn't a zombie land
people all still went about their daily
lives with some added precautions put in
place the city was undergoing a
heavy-duty awareness campaign and most
Liberian rappers had even recorded songs
warning people to be careful
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Ebola is at its most infectious on dead
bodies of its victims which makes
burials and funerals and extremely risky
practice Monrovia dead were no longer
being buried instead they were being
cremated so as not to infect others we
met up with a body retrieval team
working with the International
Federation of Red Cross their job was to
collect bodies from all over the city
and prep them for cremation their first
stop was JFK Hospital a health care
worker had passed away and the family
had received special permission to bury
the body this particular
the family is that a big concern for you
with these guys going in there I mean do
you worry about them getting sick II
worry about that contracting disease and
I'm sure place in the mind of my team
unfortunately there was a mixup at JFK
will be dressed for almost an hour plus
now and we're putting them to fight a
party the boy who came to picked up it's
like they are saying that they've
already talking about it and the family
members say the party's here and it
knocked off say he has you know place it
somewhere else or not we will come soon
we'll be able to identify the body
bumgarner Putin was messed up nobody
knows who to the body from gear things
got a bit confusing inside JFK admit the
confusion a sick man straggled up
outside the hospital gates his family
said he had tested positive for malaria
and typhoid
but precautions were still necessary
Ebola has stressed Liberian health care
system so much that even those with
other diseases are being turned away
each time pick up body eat that many to
do to spray spray our body anything we
talk to spray or to be but even with
that I mean there's gotta be it's it's a
really scary disease a man got a disease
but we drink we if we don't do we will
do it yeah who would do it and nobody
would do it so we are trained for this
purpose so we don't want that scenario
and you said I would a lot of dead
bodies in the street of morovia and
nobody's picking up so once we are
trained and we have the capability we'll
have to do it you know importer to
southern nation so you can see like the
the bleach on the back of your shirt
right now right yes all your shirts now
just cover covered in Bleach yeah
emmanuel joked about it but he's doing
one of the most dangerous jobs in the
city every precaution needs to be taken
and even taking off the personal
protection equipment suits it needs to
be handled meticulously otherwise the
suit wearer can get infected this is
what they do ten times a day they have
nine stops today
they suit up they get ready and they go
and you know they can't make one little
mistake because if they do it's gonna
spread one of their team members is
gonna get sick it's gonna be even harder
to get people to do this job so what
we've what we've been told is that the
symptoms here lead them to believe it's
probably not Ebola it might be rabies or
something of that nature but because of
the situation every precaution has to be
taken so everybody that's being disposed
of now is being treated as if it's an
Ebola victim
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the body retrieval teams often face
reluctance from family members
especially when the symptoms are in line
with other diseases no one wants to see
a loved one carried off in a body bag
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outside an abandoned mansion on the
outskirts of Monrovia family members of
an Ebola victim told us how they think
he caught the disease when I did mostly
clean up and the last time we had a tea
how pollyali what about the mosque not a
bad boy me been watching
I thought he came morning sorry I were
grab grab Tony to go to HUS it with
because they're doing the burials the
mosque and you think he caught it from
one of the bodies that was there you
know that okay he's now calling : : :
but if you put delay they told you to
leave can I try and appeal to these
people all day to respond to call
fellows fast will be fine so his
community told him to come here they
kicked it out they drove over here to
put him in this house to keep him away
from to come here and you started
calling on Sunday when he got really
sick when did he pass away when did he
pass a last night
so you have to do this ten times a day
you talk to people who've lost their
relatives I mean does that affect your
mind are you cause they are fit Norman
no with the trip for this yeah we have
prepared to sacrifice into three service
but alacrity
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every day to see our brothers and
sisters turn up at hospital and it
cannot be ticketed simply because these
facilities do not have a space it's
really emotional it's heartbreaking so
difficult to contend with need help us
to come to I
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