Share

Liberia women, children bear brunt of Ebola

Monrovia - Exhausted and unable to process her loss, Olivia Clark turns away in silence as her dead baby is disinfected and loaded onto a truck by a team of Ebola specialists.

Aaron, just 18 months old, slipped away a few hours earlier, too young to fight the deadly virus amplifying inside his tiny body.

It is likely that he was infected by his father, Olivia's husband, who died at their home in the Liberian capital Monrovia two weeks earlier.

"Even if I look at him, what can I do for him? I am waiting for death myself. I no longer have tears for this. I think the best thing is to wait for Ebola to make me join my husband and my son", she says.

Although they are not supposed to let the unending tragedy get to them, several of the Red Cross workers who will bury Aaron cannot hide their despair.

"I am human too my brother", one tells AFP, voice wavering as his eyes fill up.

Olivia had taken Aaron to hospital after she noticed his fever and doctors had sent her home with some pills.

By then he had stopped breastfeeding and, eventually, ceased moving at all.

Even if his condition had been something less deadly than Ebola fever, he was hardly in surroundings conducive to recovery.

After her husband died, Olivia had been banished from the family home by neighbours worried that she would infect them.

Suddenly alone in the world, she took Aaron to a half-constructed concrete building with no windows, water or electricity, sleeping among muddy puddles that gathered in the rain and swatting away mosquitoes.

"We asked her to go in the unfinished house to sleep with her baby because when the husband died the house was not disinfected", Ahmed Folay, a community youth leader tells AFP.

"The community is helping her with food and water. That's all we can do."

2 000 Ebola orphans

Although she has not been seen by a doctor, Olivia almost certainly has Ebola.

The tropical virus, transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than 2 600 people in four countries since the start of the year, more than half of them in Liberia.

The outbreak is taking a particularly devastating toll on women, who face greater exposure to the deadly pathogen, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Liberia's health ministry has reported that three-quarters of those infected or killed by Ebola are women.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Voting Booth
Can radio hosts and media personalities be apolitical?
Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Results
Yes, impartiality is key for public trust
32% - 412 votes
No, let's be real, we all have inherent biases
68% - 867 votes
Vote
Rand - Dollar
19.08
+0.4%
Rand - Pound
23.61
+0.9%
Rand - Euro
20.33
+0.3%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.25
+0.4%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.4%
Platinum
943.10
-0.8%
Palladium
1,030.50
+0.1%
Gold
2,388.47
+0.4%
Silver
28.68
+1.6%
Brent Crude
87.11
-0.2%
Top 40
67,314
+0.2%
All Share
73,364
+0.1%
Resource 10
63,285
-0.0%
Industrial 25
98,701
+0.3%
Financial 15
15,499
+0.1%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE