U.K. Faces Criticism for Ebola-Containment Steps in Sierra Leone
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — The U.K. government and British charity Save the Children are under scrutiny for the management of an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone, the West African nation poised to overtake Liberia as the worst-affected country.
The epidemic is spreading in Sierra Leone at a pace that isn’t matched by containment efforts, Doctors Without Borders said in a report on Dec. 2. Only 11 beds supplied by the U.K. were operational as of Nov. 27, the medical aid charity said. Save the Children said today 40 beds are operational at its Kerry Town center and more will be deployed as it ensures safety measures.
The U.K. is facing mounting criticism in Sierra Leone from local media and government officials, while foreign aid workers have also voiced concern about Save the Children’s capabilities. The U.K. has been taking the lead in its former colony, with the U.S. focusing its efforts in Liberia and France concentrating on former colony Guinea.
An 80-bed treatment center managed by Save the Children opened Nov. 5 in Kerry Town, near the capital of Freetown, as part of the U.K.’s 230-million pound ($358 million) commitment to supply 700 beds, fund burial teams and provide other health services in Sierra Leone, according to statement issued by the government at the time.
More than 2,000 new cases were reported in Sierra Leone over the previous 3 weeks, compared with about 800 in Liberia, according to the World Health Organization’s Dec. 5 report.
Lacking Expertise
“For Kerry Town, Save the Children do not have the expertise,” Paolo Conteh, chief executive officer of Sierra Leone’s National Ebola Response Center, told reporters last week. “That is something we must all accept and say we got it wrong or the Brits got it wrong in handing over that facility to Save the Children, which has never run an Ebola facility.”
A total of 67 patients have been treated at the Kerry Town center, where 40 beds are operational, Save the Children, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
“The total capacity of the 80-bed facility will be phased in, as is accepted best practice, over the coming weeks, giving staff time to ensure a safe environment for patients and staff and reduce the risk of infection,” the charity said. “We always knew, and said publicly, that the running and management of the Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone would be complicated and challenging.”
The charity will hold a press briefing in Freetown at 11 a.m. today.
A Cuban doctor became infected with Ebola at the Kerry Town clinic soon after it was opened and was flown to Geneva to receive treatment. He has since recovered and has left Switzerland, the University Hospitals of Geneva said Dec. 6.
Doctor’s Infection
Under pressure to start operating the Kerry Town clinic as quickly as possible, Save the Children opened it just two days after construction was completed, with many systems and safety measures not yet in place, Leslie Roberts, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who visited the facility in mid-November to investigate how the Cuban doctor got infected, wrote on his blog.
“By all accounts, the first couple of days were chaos,” Roberts wrote. He declined to comment beyond what he had posted online. “After two weeks of operation, the facility was little safer than it had been on the day the doctor was infected.”
Michael Haig, a spokesman for the U.K. Department for International Development, didn’t immediately respond to questions about how and why Save the Children was chosen to manage the treatment facility. The agency is working with a range of non-government organizations to operate the other clinics it is building, he said by phone.
U.S. Assistance
The U.K. government and its partners “clearly lack the competence to take leadership role” and should consider asking for technical assistance from the U.S. military, the Standard Times, Sierra Leone’s largest national daily, said in an editorial on Nov. 24.
“The U.S. Department of Defense forces in Liberia have received no indication we will expand our Ebola response mission outside of Liberia,” spokesman Brian DeSantis said by e-mail.
Sierra Leone’s ministry of health “has agreed to totally provide the support in terms of nurses and other auxiliary staff to actually manage Kerry Town,” Chief Medical Officer Brima Kargbo said in an interview in Freetown on Dec. 5.
Save the Children’s Chief Executive Officer Justin Forsyth built his career at the anti-poverty charity Oxfam before working for U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair to lead efforts on poverty and climate change.
Helped by individual and institutional donations, Save the Children increased its income 21 percent to 343 million pounds in 2013, allowing it to extend its reach to 15.4 million children from 8 million a year earlier, according to its annual report.
To contact the reporters on this story: Makiko Kitamura in London at mkitamura1@bloomberg.net; Silas Gbandia in Freetwn at sgbandia@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net Chitra Somayaji
