An update on fighting Ebola in Liberia

By Samuel R. Enders, Rotary Club of Yonkers-East Yonkers, New York, USA

The rate of infection from Ebola in Liberia is slowly decreasing. It is a great joy to sit in my office, which is right next to the main road, and not hear every hour the sirens of pickup trucks transporting bodies to be cremated. It is a sound Liberians have come to know as the sound of sorrow.

Our campaign to prevent the spread of Ebola and save lives is now in its third phase. I am grateful to the board of the African Dream Academy, members of the Yonkers-East Yonkers Rotary Club, friends, and partners who have taken on a leadership role or assisted financially in our efforts. When others did not understand the significance of getting involved, or felt it was too far away for them to deal with, you saw the need for help and responded.

When I arrived back in Liberia in late June, I recognized the country was in a crisis. People were dying daily and health workers were abandoning their jobs for fear of their lives. The reality of the catastrophe became clear with daily news of people dropping in the streets and bleeding to death. Conveys of trucks passed by a few times every hour carrying bodies wrapped in black body bags.