Partners In Health Ebola Response

Thank you for supporting Partners In Health and our work to fight  Ebola in West Africa.   Below, we are excited to share the most recent updates from our colleagues on the ground in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Thank you for your generosity, which is saving lives and helping to build long-term health care systems for those who need it most. 

• In Port Loko Town, Sierra Leone, PIH is providing care and treatment to around 80 patients each day at a 106-bed Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) staffed by local health care providers and short-term PIH clinicians. Located in the Northern Province, Port Loko is currently one of the areas hardest hit with Ebola. Over the last few weeks, PIH has also expanded our efforts to support additional facilities, including two isolation units at government hospitals (Port Loko Government Hospital and Princess Christian Maternity Hospital), and four rural Ebola Care Units (smaller, community-based facilities where suspected Ebola patients can receive basic care and isolation in an isolated and safe environment, while waiting for test results or transfer to an ETU).

• In Liberia, Ebola Treatment Units are currently being constructed by U.S. Department of Defense contractors, and the first to be operated by PIH will be fully operational at the end of this month. In addition to supporting Ebola treatment facilities, PIH is prioritizing a strategy in Liberia of mobilizing rapid response teams that are able to travel to remote areas of the country when clusters of Ebola cases emerge, in order to deliver immediate care to most effectively support the continued containment of further spread.  PIH is also working with our implementing partner Last Mile Health to conduct infection control training in Rivercess County, a rural area in the south-central part of the country.

• As part of our overall response, PIH is committed to supporting, hiring, and training Ebola survivors to fill roles that match their skill set and qualifications, providing them with dignified roles in combatting the disease and opportunities to reintegrate into their communities and heal emotionally. In Sierra Leone, we have hired over 200 survivors, and are supporting Survivor Associations in Kono District, Port Loko District, and Freetown that serve to link survivors with job opportunities in those areas.

• Between Liberia and Sierra Leone, PIH has already trained and deployed over 40 urgently-needed short-term clinicians, and hired over 250 employees to support our immediate and long-term strategies in West Africa.