Ebola In Liberia: Hospitals Overflowing, Women Giving Birth In Streets

The Ebola crisis in Liberia has taken a turn for the worse as health centers have run out of room and people are still getting infected.

Liberia is currently at war, but this time it is not with rebels.

The West African country is fighting against Ebola, an enemy which is threatening its very existence, as the Liberian Minister of Defence, Brownie Samukai said.


A startling report by VICE News reveals that Ebola patients in the country are being left to die because there is no space for them in the nation’s hospitals.

One man, identified as Paul M. Goi, had 3 family members who were believed to have been infected with the disease but he couldn’t get them any medical care.

Chi-Chi's source reports:

Paul M. Goi waited outside of the Redemption Hospital, a treatment center serving as a holding area for Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia, with his sick sister-in-law in the backseat of his station wagon.

She had been vomiting, and he assumed that she had caught the Ebola virus. Across the street, inside an ambulance were other members of his family, including his daughter and granddaughter. They, too, were believed to be sick with Ebola.

"I'm very frustrated," Goi told VICE News. "I had been calling the ambulances since Sunday to come pick them up, and none came." Now that he had finally managed to get his sick relatives picked up and taken to the hospital, there was simply no room. All he wanted was answers, he said.

In an alleyway next to the hospital, a young woman in green scrubs lay on the ground a mere 10 yards from a side exit. A patient, she had escaped out the door because she was scared and wanted to see her family.

She was too weak to venture much further. A crowd gathered but kept their distance.

Ebola has now infected over 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, and over half those infected have died. Liberia is now the epicenter of the outbreak, the worst since the disease was discovered in 1976.

Approximately half the infected cases and deaths have occurred in Liberia. The capital of Monrovia, with a population of approximately 1,000,000, has been hit hardest. The number of Ebola cases is expected to grow exponentially in the coming weeks.

The few treatment centers are filled to over capacity, and there is a complete lack of qualified medical professionals. Even before the epidemic, which has killed dozens of health care workers, it is estimated that there was only one doctor for every 100,000 residents in Liberia.

With the onset of Ebola, Liberia's health care system is completely overstretched. People are dying of treatable diseases because they can't get into hospitals, and pregnant women are giving birth in the street. Everything is collapsing.

US President, Barack Obama has announced that the country will send 3000 troops to Liberia to aid in the fight against the disease while China will donate $32.5 million to the cause.

The World Bank has also approved a grant of $150 million to be used in combating Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.