Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
It has slid from news headlines, but Ebola is still part of the daily reality in West Africa. Hours after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak over in January, Sierra Leone officials reported two more Ebola cases.
Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone is a major regional centre which already had expertise in handling Lassa fever, another haemorrhagic fever. However it was overwhelmed by Ebola and lost 37 of its own medical workers to the deadly virus. Just five doctors are now left at the hospital to treat a population of more than 500,000.
A Water-Aid - VSO study found a 30 percent increase in maternal deaths and a 24 percent increase in newborn deaths in Sierra Leone between May 2014 and April 2015 in part because women were afraid to go to hospital and attempting to deliver babies without skilled care in unhygienic conditions at home. Some 87 percent of homes in Sierra Leone do not have toilets and 37 percent do not have access to clean water.
WaterAid is working in the region to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in healthcare facilities; the non-governmental organisation hopes to reach 130,000 new mothers and their families in its programme work here and in other countries in its Deliver Life appeal.
All photos WaterAid/Monique Jaques
