Yahoo – AFP,
Rod Mac Johnson, 2 Nov 2014
Freetown
(AFP) - The head of a leading British charity hit out Sunday at western nations
for quarantining health worker "heroes" returning from Ebola-hit west
Africa and refusing visas to people from the worst-hit countries.
Save the
Children chief executive Justin Forsyth, on a trip to Sierra Leone, singled out
immigration rules imposed by Canada and Australia and measures by some US states
that quarantine medics who have treated infected patients.
"It is
very important that nurses and doctors from abroad come to Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Guinea easily and also leave and return to their home country for
rest without the threat of being quarantined," he said.
Experts say
quarantining medical professionals who have shown no symptoms of the virus is
counter-productive and could deter other workers from helping contain west
Africa's Ebola crisis.
In a case
which attracted international criticism, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
kept a nurse in an isolation tent for three days after she flew back from
Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile
Canada and Australia controversially announced last week that they were
suspending visa applications from Ebola-hit west African nations to prevent the
virus from crossing their borders.
"I
think it's completely wrong what some governors in the United States have done
and what the governments of Canada and Australia have done too," he told
AFP in the capital Freetown.
"We
should make it easy for health workers to come and go without hindrance
(because) they are heroes."
Forsyth
spoke out at the end of a four-day visit to assess the extent of the epidemic
in Sierra Leone, one of the hardest-hit countries with around 1,500 deaths.
Nurse Kaci
Hickox was quarantined at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey,
on October
27, 2014, after treating Ebola patients in west Africa, despite being
symptom
free (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)
|
Forsyth
said the outbreak remained a "crisis" that was not yet under control,
but pointed to some recent progress, saying that safe burials within 24 hours
of death had become much more commonplace.
Britain is
taking the international lead in tackling Ebola in Sierra Leone due to its
historic links with its former colony, which has been independent since 1961.
A UK army
medical team arrived in Sierra Leone in October to work at a British-supported
treatment centre.
Last week a
naval ship brought 350 military and civilian personnel and materials to build
and supply medical units, bringing the total British deployment to fight Ebola
in Sierra Leone to about 900 people.
Forsyth
visited an 100-bed treatment centre due to open this week in Kerry Town, near
the capital of Freetown, which has been funded by Britain, built by the British
army and will be run by Save the Children.
He also
visited the charity's door-to-door Ebola prevention teams and our Emergency
Radio Education initiative offering lessons to children who are not attending
school across the country.
Almost
5,000 people have been killed by the virus, according to data from the World
Health Organization, which has recorded more than 13,000 cases, but admits the
real number of infections and deaths could be could be much higher.
No comments:
Post a Comment