Despite having spent millions of dollars on aid, the United States' effort at helping curb Ebola in Liberia was found inadequate, mostly because the American government put up treatment centers too late, underutilizing the facilities.
According to officials, 11 of the treatment units built in Liberia only saw 28 patients while nine did not even have a single patient. Dr. Hans Rosling, a public health expert from Sweden, said he was tasked with convincing international organizations that Ebola treatment units were no longer needed. While the outbreak was the biggest ever for the virus, infecting over 25,500 and claiming over 10,500 lives, it was winding down before American aid was established in Liberia.
Had the United States and other donors exercised more flexibility, the money could have instead been put toward rebuilding the poor health care system Liberia had and backing efforts carried out by local communities, criticized experts. Deploying the military alone cost $360 million.
To be fair, though, the U.S. also offered its support to a number of important efforts in Liberia, like increasing teams collecting bodies, building a new cemetery, air-lifting supplies to rural areas and building test labs. It's just unfortunate that 90 percent of the American aid arrived after Ebola cases have started dropping.
Jeremy Konyndyk, Ebola response head for the United States Agency for International Development, explained that there was no available template on how an epidemic of that magnitude was supposed to be handled, compared with more conventional disasters like earthquakes and famines. Initial models guided the outbreak effort to ensure enough treatment units were available and so that's where the American Ebola effort was focused on.
"The challenge in this kind of a response is you don't know where the fire is going to break out, but you're going to need a fire station there when it does," he added.
As Ebola cases started to drop even more, American soldiers directed their energies to training 1,500 health workers in Liberia instead of building additional treatment units. Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky said that even though some Ebola treatment units never saw one patient, the health workers assigned to them now have a complete understanding of Ebola.
Dr. Moses Massaquoi, Ebola case management head for the Liberian health ministry, admitted that support from the United States came too late to create any impact at the epidemic's height but it offered what Liberia needed to sustain its current gains by building up on the country's capacity, "and that's why we are here today."
Photo: CDC Global | Flickr
