Mgr Robert J. Vitillo, delegate to the United Nations in Geneva for Caritas Internationalis has said that the Ebola crisis in Liberia remains extremely grave and continues to disrupt everyday life for most of the population.
The priest travelled to the country on Friday 26 September to explore ways of strengthening the Caritas response to the crisis.
Fr Vitillo told The Tablet on Tuesday that there was great fear among the clergy and the laity in country, but many priests and religious sisters remained the only people willing to deliver food and other personal supplies to the infected.
Much more international support was needed, according to Fr Vitillo, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers, food aid for those who are in quarantine and cannot farm or have no income to buy food because “non-essential” jobs have been terminated.
“Funding is needed, not only for direct Ebola programming, but also to re-start health services for uninfected people suffering from other illnesses,” he said in an email interview.
In August, the Catholic Church closed down the St Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia after nine of its staff, including the Director, Br Patrick, and their chaplain, Fr Miguel, both of St. John of God congregation, and seven other staff died of Ebola.
“I met with the Minister of Health of Liberia this morning and he pleaded for international organisations to help the government keep open their regular health services and especially spoke of his desire to work closely with the Catholic Church to re-open St Joseph's Catholic Hospital,” said Fr Vitillo.
In Liberia, 14 of the 17 Catholic health facilities are functioning, but experiencing severe shortages of supplies, especially of PPE, according to Fr Vitillo.
Above: Liberians wait outside the John F. Kennedy Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, on 18 September. Photo: CNS photo/Ahmed Jallanzo, EPA
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