The head of a medical team of volunteers from Uganda has stressed the need for more blood donation to various ETUs as one of the surest ways of fighting the Ebola Virus Disease. Dr. Anne Deborah Atai-Omoruto wants Philanthropists and kind-hearted individuals to donate blood to help save the lives of thousands of Liberians who are facing the life threatening EVD.

 

The Ugandan trained doctor and WHO consultant on Ebola says that patients need more blood during treatment because the Ebola virus damages the clotting system of the body that usually helps to protect and prevent abnormal loss of plasma when there is bleeding. She told Developmental Media Incorporated (DMI) that those clotting factors are available in every human, because the body repairs itself all the time.

 

Stressing the importance of blood in this Ebola struggle, Dr. Atai-Omoruto said: "We need the antibodies of people, especially from the survivors, because when the body system is stunned by the Ebola virus and you are able to quickly infuse a survivor's blood into a patient, it helps fight the virus.

 

"It suffocates more about the virus and gives the person better chance of survival." She wants a blood bank to be established, where blood donated by Liberians will be managed by WHO, CDC and the government of Liberia.

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Atai has regretted the lack of space to accommodate sick people turning out at treatment centers across the country, saying "As a medical doctor, it is very frustrating to see that you cannot help a patient who is desperately in need of your help even though you would love to render them assistance, my desire is that everyone who comes here should get treatment; even if I have to put them under a tree, I will definitely do that, that is actually what I want to do."

 

Speaking on the severity of the West African outbreak, Dr. Atai explicated that the strand of the Ebola virus that they know in Uganda is different from what she and her colleagues are battling in West Africa stating that the strand of the Ebola virus in Liberia and neighboring countries is very strange and deceptive.

 

The Ugandan Doctor said it is difficult to fight this new strand of EVD because of the very high population in the Capital. "There is much crowding, there are lots of activities, a lot of body contact and the virus took the country completely unaware."

 

Dr. Atai and her team has been training local health workers from across the country in handling, treatment of patients of the filo-virus Ebola since they arrived in Liberia.

 

"I am just hoping that I can build enough capacity so that I can hand over those health workers to ETUs that are being built after been through the training and knowing exactly what need to be done" she said.

 

Dr. Anne Deborah Atai-Omoruto, a graduate of Makerere University in Uganda and chair of the Department of Family Medicine, is a Practicing Family Physician and a founding member of the Association of Family Physicians of East Africa.

 

In addition to her role as the President of the Family Physicians of Uganda, she has also conducted insightful research as a doctor, primarily in the field of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIVs, and malaria. She's currently serving as a consultant to WHO assigned at the Island Hospital (formerly Island Clinic) Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) in Tweh Farm Community. She is the head of a team of twelve Ugandan health workers, which includes two Physician Assistants, eight Nurses, and two doctors.

 

Few days ago, Dr. Tolbert Nyanswah, Assistant Health Minister for Curative Services, spoke of the government's efforts to increase the number of treatment units across the country to 17; so that those who are sick can access those centers in their respective counties. "This will ensure quick treatment and survival for people turning out soon for treatment" he said.

 

The Ebola Treatment Unit at the island hospital in Tweh Farm Community which is being managed by the Ugandan team was built to help boost patient survival chances as other ETUs around Monrovia continue to receive a multiplicity of cases. But it has dramatically experienced a sharp increase in the number of patients that it's capacitated to handle from 150, with a little over 170 patients.

 

It is now six months since the deadly Ebola virus entered into Liberia through the Republic of Guinea, affecting Liberia which now reports the highest cases of death from the virus in the sub-region.

 

According to the Center of Disease Control, the death toll now stands at 1,677, and the number of cases reported at 3,280 with 890 laboratory confirmed cases in Liberia. Even in the wake of increased international support to countries affected by the virus, the case level continues to upsurge exponentially-not linearly, on a daily basis with international experts from WHO and CDC estimating that a total of 1.4m cases before the virus are brought under control.

 

Meanwhile, an elderly healthcare worker emphasized to DMI, the need for government to set up mini-clinics at the various Ebola treatment centers so that those who are sick from curable diseases can be prevented from dying from the lack of attention and rejection at regular facilities.

 

By Gabriel M. Dixon, Jallah Grayfield, E. Orlind Cooper

The Analyst, Liberia