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A Research Committee of
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Adam
Podgòrecki Prize
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Thursday, 14 July Chair: Lucero Ibarra Rojas, México
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), also known as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) or Ebola, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans that is transmitted to people from wild animals and spread in the human population through human to human transmission. The virus, first discovered in Liberia in early March of 2014, entered the country from northeastern Liberia in a town called Foya by an infected person from the Republic of Guinea. The spread of the virus in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, three West African countries in 2013, was as a result firstly due to health practitioners in these countries being unaware of the cause and effect of the deadly disease. Secondly, these countries incapacitated health sectors were not prepared for such a pandemic thereby causing a rapid spread especially in Liberia where the outbreak occurred in the capital, Monrovia which was the first of its kind in the history of the virus. The densely populated capitol, insufficient medical practitioners and an unprepared health service in Monrovia and surrounding counties escalated the rapid spread of the virus. The pandemic overwhelmed the three countries and took away 10,675 as at April 2, 2016. Southeastern Liberia, which hosts 488,289 people (10% of the total population of 4.5 million people) has been and still is faced with numerous challenges with the provision of basic health services among the most important. The region is cut off from the rest of the country due to bad road connections. The region lacks most of the basic necessities for livelihood and the provision of basic commodities is scarce. Prices of drugs are astronomically high compared to that of other urban areas and service delivery for most people remains a problem due to numerous challenges. Access to health and the availability of sufficient health practitioners continue to be a problem in that region of Liberia since 2005. We are considering taking a critical look at the access to service delivery , considering the assessment of the health sector in southeastern Liberia, specifically Accessibility, Affordability, Availability and Quality of service in that part of the country.
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