Monrovia - A single family in the LPMC community in Ganta, Nimba County has been badly hit by the deadly Ebola virus. The family’s woes started when an 18-month-old child, Baby Emmanuel became sick and died and no one knew the cause of death.

The mother of the child also became sick and died and other members of her family who came in close contact with them started to get sick until a house full of people became sick with the same signs and symptoms.

The family tried taking some members, who were sick to the Ganta United Methodist Hospital, but health workers at the hospital, who were afraid that they might get infected, refused them on arrival and so the other family members took the sick home to watch them die one by one. The family is now afraid more people will die as all the deaths have been traced to the deadly Ebola virus and the authorities are still slow to act to quarantine the area.

“We have lost nine members of our family. We are very devastated. On August 14, we lost a little boy. He was showing signs of the disease; he had rashes on his face hands and body. He died and was buried by family members,” said Edith Woo a member of the family who resides in the United States of America. Woo expressed fear she might lose more family members to the deadly disease if steps are not taken to do the right thing by isolating the sick. She said the county’s health team came to the home, when the little boy was sick and told the family it was nothing to worry about and that it was just measles. She said the team instructed the family to bury the child after his death.

“The health team came and instructed the family to bury the boy because they said it was measles, so he was buried by family members,” she said.

“On the 16th of August my sister died and on the 17th my aunt died. These bodies were in the house for three and a half days. They will tell you they are coming, but they do not show up. They promised to come test the family, but never came and everybody in the house were showing signs.”

She said several days passed and the health team did not show up, even though the family made numerous calls to them and as the response became slower, more people died and even more got infected with the deadly virus. She said when the health team finally showed up to test for Ebola, all results of seven persons came out positive and on the same day there was one more death.

“They took a blood test of seven people and everybody turned out to be positive. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, people died,” she said as another member of her family who lives in Monrovia begged the media to help the family call on the government to come to their aid to stop the spread of the disease to other members of the family.

“My sister was taken to the Ganta Methodist Hospital before she died, but the health workers refused her when they saw her condition, so she came home and died,” said Alice Appleton, a resident of Monrovia and another sister of the dead woman whose baby is at the epicenter of the spread of the deadly virus. “All these bodies were in the house with the living. They came on Saturday and removed the bodies.”

Yah Zolia, Deputy Minister, Planning, Research and Development Ministry of Health and currently assigned to Nimba County by the Incidence Manager/MOHSW as Technical Assistant told FrontPageAfrica that currently there is no Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) or holding center for the isolation of people infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Ganta or Sanniquellie, even though evidence shows that isolation of cases can break the transmission.

She said the hospitals were advised by experts including the World Health Organization representative to Liberia and the ministry of health not to keep Ebola patients in hospitals where other routine services are provided.

“Consequently, all cases (suspected, probable and confirmed) are located in communities where mobile medical teams provide basic essential drugs and basic services, eg. In Ganta,” she said. Zolia said because of this the NimbaEbola response team, in collaboration with the Case Management Team in Monrovia has been transporting confirmed cases to Monrovia when space is available at the ETU there.

“With the current situation of probable and confirmed cases in Nimba (with approx. 90% in Ganta), coupled with delay in establishing a functional holding center, the only logical and sensible thing to do is to find a temporary holding center for all probable and confirmed Ebola patients, while we wait for transport to Monrovia as and when space becomes available there,” she said in a memo to the authorities of the Ebola case management team who vehemently refused to heed to her advice.

“Today (August 31st, 2014), we identified a ten (10)-bedroom government-owned community clinic we want to convert into a temporary holding center to begin moving the sick patients there, while we wait for the holding center at Ganta Hospital compound to be completed and made functional.” Zolia said the best places to manage Ebola cases are isolation units (ETU and holding centers) with trained health workers but authorities in Monrovia are advising against it.

“As a result, relatives are caring for them and they too are being exposed to the virus, thus, leading to spread of the disease,” she said in her memo. “In the absence of these in the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic in Nimba, we are being consistently advised by experts to keep these patients isolated in their homes until the holding center at Ganta Hospital compound is ready.”

But Dr. Moses Massaquoi, National Case Management Chair of the National Ebola Task Force in response to Zolia’s suggestion of creating a temporary holding center opposed to its establishment. “We would like to advice you NOT to move the probable and confirmed cases in one location other than the ETUs (which we know bed spaces are not available at the moment). We are working on it,” he said in his response.

“It is very risky from the point of moving if not done properly and the danger of amplifying in a none ETU settings where direct care to the patients is not the most important. Infection prevention and control set up in a typical ETU is the most difficult part. It is a mistake to compare it with holding room strategy that has been done in the hospitals.”

Dr. Massaquoi said recommended that patients who are infected be kept in isolation in their homes instead of moving them to a temporary holding facility as Zolia has suggested. “In the interim, we are proposing a household level isolation (one room isolation) where caregivers (family members) are provided hygiene materials to provide the minimal care until we can move the patients to a proper treatment units,” said Dr. Massaquoi.

The deadly Ebola Virus Disease was first confirmed in Nimba County around mid July 2014, On Friday 25th, July 2014 at an Ebola coordination meeting in Sanniquellie, Nimba County, it was reported that there were two positive cases in Ganta that died, with four (4) possible hotspots where contacts were listed.

Sanniquellie registered one (1) positive case that was still in the community with three (3) possible hotspots where contacts were listed at the time. A little over a month later, the cumulative suspected, probable and confirmed cases now stand at 104 with 61 reported deaths. The disease is now in four (4) of the six (6) health districts of Nimba (SanniquellieMah, SaclepeaMah, GbehlayGeh and Zoe Geh), with potential to further spread.

The family in the LPMC area continues to see members of their household die from the deadly Ebola virus, as authorities in Monrovia are still pondering over what move to make, but as the track of the disease in Nimba shows, time is running out.