Ebola crisis demands far more international help, Vitillo says

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 26 September to explore ways of strengthening the Caritas response to the crisis. He told The Tablet on Tuesday that there was great fear among the clergy and the laity in the country, but many priests and religious sisters remained the only people willing to deliver food and other personal supplies to the infected.

International help was needed, Fr Vitillo said, to provide personal protective equipment, volunteer doctors, nurses, psychologists and social workers, and food aid for those in quarantine or have no income because “non-essential” jobs have been terminated.

In August, the Catholic Church closed down the St Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia after several staff, including the director, Br Patrick, and its chaplain, Fr Miguel, both of St John of God Congregation, died of ebola.

“I met the Minister of Health  and he pleaded for international organisations to help the Government keep open regular health services and especially spoke of his desire to work closely with the Church to reopen St Joseph’s Hospital,” said Fr Vitillo.