Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bo (Agenzia Fides) - A few weeks ago it was a cassava field. Today it is a gleaming tented city made up of four huge tents surrounded by smaller tents and brick-built buildings, intersected by orange fences and dotted with purple chairs. This is MSF’s newest Ebola treatment centre, near Sierra Leone’s second city of Bo. Built in just five weeks by shifts of labourers working around the clock, it opened its gates on September 19, and despite the construction work that still continues, the first of its 34-bed-wards is full. The first patients were shuttled by ambulance from a nearby Ebola transit center, set up by MSF when the deadly disease first erupted in Bo. So far, 16 patients have been discharged. Each time it is a huge boost to the morale of the other patients as well as the 280 staff who work here.
The majority - 260 - are Sierra Leonean. Many of them previously worked at the MSF’s mother’s and children’s hospital nearby. Others come from different backgrounds, but most share the enthusiasm to join the fight against the disease. Among the local operators there are nine women involved in preparing patients’ lunch in a freshly tiled kitchen, a philosophy teacher, filling in the logbooks in the supply tent and the former pastor who now works as a mental health counsellor. The new centre is spacious and meticulously organized, with smooth cement flooring underfoot, rather than gravel, and heavy-duty tents to withstand Sierra Leone’s seven-month rainy season. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 20/10/1014)
