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 To many in this impoverished West African country, President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf's government has not done enough to protect them
from the deadly virus. Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in
Liberia since its arrival six months ago. Across West Africa, the
death toll from the world's worst Ebola outbreak has surpassed
1,900.
Panicked residents said the patient was the fifth to escape in
recent weeks from the understaffed ELWA hospital. Dozens watched
anxiously as workers in protective clothes bundled the struggling
patient into a truck and drove him back.
"The patients are hungry, they are starving. No food, no water,"
said one terrified woman in the crowd. "The government need to do
more. Let Ellen Johnson Sirleaf do more!"
A Noble Peace Prize winner for her work on women's rights, Johnson
Sirleaf had made gradual progress before the epidemic in rebuilding
Liberia after a 1989-2003 civil war.
She now seems destined, however, to spend the last two years of her
presidency dealing with the fallout from Ebola.
Feted internationally since she became Africa's first female head of
state nine years ago, Johnson Sirleaf's reputation at home has been
dogged by a slow improvement in living standards. Some critics
saying she is out of touch with poor Liberians.
The 75-year-old former World Bank official now faces mounting anger
over her handling of Ebola. Her government has been denounced for
causing food shortages by imposing quarantine on affected
communities, while healthcare workers have walked out on strike
after several of their colleagues died.
The president has also faced criticism for sending troops to quell
protests in the ocean-front West Point slum of Monrovia. A
15-year-old boy was fatally shot after soldiers opened fire on a
crowd trying to break out of a quarantine there.
Opponents have called for Johnson Sirleaf to resign, but her
government has said it is doing everything possible, given the scant
resources at its disposal.
"Care and attention should be given to helping people who need it
the most and we can get into the politics later," Information
Minister Lewis Brown told Reuters. "We're in a better position than
we were several weeks ago in this fight."
Johnson Sirleaf has taken bold steps. Declaring a state of national
emergency last month, she closed schools to prevent them becoming
breeding grounds for infection, and sent home all non-essential
government staff.
But the disease is far outpacing efforts to control it. Medical
charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said this week a further 800
Ebola beds were needed in Monrovia alone, and it called for foreign
military teams to be deployed.
"Localized unrest and public criticism of government failures look
set to increase as the health situation worsens and the authorities
fail to find adequate responses," warned Roddy Barclay of
consultancy Control Risks.
NO CLEAR STRATEGY
Tom Frieden, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), warned this week after a visit to the region that
the outbreak was gathering pace and threatened the stability of
fragile West African nations. Although the epidemic was detected deep in the forests of
neighboring Guinea in March, Liberia now accounts for more than half
the 1,900 people who have died from the virus, which has also struck
Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nigeria.
"The government was not clear on how to engage the outbreak," said
Francis Colee, an environmentalist living in Monrovia, who said
Liberia had reacted poorly compared with its neighbors. "The
government's response mechanism has been very disappointing."
Liberia is not the only government to face criticism as health
systems have buckled. In Sierra Leone, struggling to recover from
its own 1991-2001 civil war, frustration has mounted at the
government's handling of the crisis. After strikes by healthcare
workers, President Ernest Bai Koroma dismissed his health minister
last month.
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Johnson Sirleaf similarly sought to quell criticism by dismissing
senior officials who failed to report for work. For Barclay of
Control Risk, recognition that the opposition cannot offer better
alternatives due to Liberia's weak institutions, meant popular anger
was unlikely to bubble over.
"Despite causing significant turbulence, such trends are unlikely to
destabilize government or fundamentally alter the balance of power,"
he said.
A major challenge has been informing a poorly educated population
about a disease which had never before struck in West Africa. Burial
traditions of washing the dead by hand have fueled the spread of the
highly contagious disease but with many citizens unable to read,
education campaigns have been slow to reach their mark.
"People are still not aware of how the virus can spread," Emmanuel
Geayon, a university student. "The Ebola messages and awareness
campaign are not in the vernacular."
Campaigns have also been dogged by deeply engrained mistrust of the
political elite. Rumors had circulated early in the outbreak that
Ebola was a myth and politicians were poisoning wells in Monrovia to
win access to more aid money.
On the muddy streets of rain-soaked Monrovia, billboards now
proclaim "Ebola is Real". On the radio, songs describe the symptoms
of the disease and how to avoid infection.
The World Health Organization has warned that up to 20,000 people
may be affected before the outbreak ends. It has laid out a $490
million roadmap for tackling the outbreak but support from foreign
donors has been slow to arrive.
"In a way, we feel saddened by the response," Johnson Sirleaf told
CNN in an interview.
The president has admitted that Liberia - which had only 50 doctors
for its 4.5 million people on the eve of the outbreak - does not
have the resources to cope.
Even in hospitals in Monrovia, a scarcity of gloves and protective
clothing has put doctors at risk when treating patients - and in
rural clinics resources are even scarcer. Several top emergency
doctors have died in their duties.
Johnson Sirleaf apologized last month for the high death toll among
healthcare workers, and pledged more money for ambulances and new
treatment centers.
But the suspension of flights by international airlines and the
closure of borders by neighboring states has complicated efforts to
respond.
"How do we get in the kinds of supplies that we need? How do we get
experts to come to our country? Is that African solidarity?"
Information Minister Brown asked.
(Additional Reporting by Emma Farge; Writing by Bate Felix and
Daniel Flynn; editing by Janet McBride)
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