CHILD HEALTH COMPROMISED DUE TO EBOLA CRISIS IN LIBERIA
The outbreak of Ebola
virus disease has severely disrupted health services for children in Liberia,
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Friday as efforts were
intensified to halt the spread of the deadly disease.
Sheldon Yett, UNICEF's
representative in Liberia, stressed that child mortality in this African
country has significantly slumped over the past decade, but now "Ebola is
threatening to wipe out all those hard-earned gains for children and for Liberia",
Xinhua reported.
Almost all health
facilities in Liberia are closed or only partially functional, and children are
not receiving protective vaccinations or being treated for the common childhood
illnesses that account for the majority of deaths in children under five years
of age, including malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF deplored that
there were children dying from measles and other vaccine preventable diseases
in this country and pregnant women had few places to deliver their babies
safely.
In addition to
providing supports to fight against Ebola, the UN agency said that to date it
has flown to Liberia nearly 248 metric tonnes of supplies which included
personal protection equipment, hygiene kits, chlorine, oral rehydration salts
for the treatment of diarrhoea and other emergency health supplies.
UNICEF also trained up
psycho-social workers and was working to restore essential maternal and child
health services, including for children suffering from malnutrition.
As primary and
secondary schools in the country were closed, affecting over 1.5 million
children, UNICEF was working with Liberian education authorities and other
partners to ensure children could continue their formal education even when
they were not attending school.
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