Friday, January 16, 2015

China Shines In Ebola Crisis

I once held out hope for the ma$$ media regarding this issue, but no longer. When you contextualize the propaganda you realize China is winning people over through infrastructure and hospitals while the West does it with death delivered through military occupation.

"Chinese-built Ebola center dedicated in Liberia" by Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Associated Press  November 26, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia — China, one of the first countries to send aid to battle Ebola in West Africa, ramped up the assistance significantly Tuesday by opening a 100-bed treatment center in Liberia as rows of uniformed Chinese Army medics stood at attention.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia toured the Ebola treatment center built by China, calling it first-class.

‘‘We want to commend China for this exceptional response,’’ Sirleaf said.

The facility, which is air- conditioned and has digital document-keeping, will start accepting patients next week.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner and has close ties with Liberia. It has pledged $81 million in aid to West Africa to stem the Ebola outbreak and has also sent at least 200 medical staff and promised more.

While infection rates in Liberia appear to be stabilizing, they continue to rise in Sierra Leone. International Medical Corps said it will start accepting patients on Wednesday at a treatment center in one of the hardest-hit areas of that country.

‘‘The crisis in Port Loko District is dire and getting worse,’’ said Hussein Ibrahim, who directs the group’s emergency response team in Sierra Leone.

Ebola has infected more than 15,000 people, the majority of them in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and has taken an especially high toll on health workers. That has depleted the ranks of doctors and nurses in countries that had too few to begin with just when they needed them most.

Another Sierra Leonean doctor has contracted the disease, Abass Kamara, a Health Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday. Dr. Aiah Solomon Konoyeima, who works at a children’s hospital in the capital, tested positive on Monday.

Because they are at such a high risk of infection — and have often worked without sufficient protective gear — health workers have frequently protested during the outbreak. On Monday, ambulance drivers and burial teams lined up Ebola corpses in body bags outside a hospital in Sierra Leone to protest delayed payment.

The bodies were brought back into the morgue, and Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said the workers have been paid but fired.

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