IOM LIBERIA
25 March 2015—13 April 2015
SITUATION REPORT
No. 4 | 16 April 2015
HIGHLIGHTS
Case Management
Nurse Celestine Olale administers medicine to patients at the mobile clinic in Zameyan Town. © IOM
Bringing Health Care Closer to Communities
As the rainy season approached, Nurse Princess Nyumah the Officer in Charge
of Zameyan Town’s nearest clinic 7 kilometers away in Beafinie, was filled with
a sense of foreboding.
She explains, “When the raining starts we have more cases of malaria, diarrhea
and acute respiratory infection.” However, since the outbreak of Ebola, the clinic
has received a markedly low number of patients, compounded by its distance
from communities. “During the rainy season, it is even more difficult for
people to walk for one and a half hours to the clinic,” Nurse Princess expounds.
- IOM is performing clinical and operational
management of three Ebola Treatment Units
(ETUs) in three counties in Liberia:
- Tubmanburg, Bomi County
- Buchanan, Grand Bassa County
- Sinje, Grand Cape Mount County.
Since opening, 131 patients have been
admitted to 3 ETUs, 12 Survivors have been
discharged and there have been 15 EVD
related deaths.
- IOM is supporting the transition of
responsibility of EVD healthcare services to
County Health Teams (CHTs). IOM is
progressively reducing ETU operations while
continuing to support to health system
revitalization and conduct community
outreach activities.

Tubmanburg ETU, Bomi County and
Buchanan ETU, Grand Bassa County will
be closing to patients on April 15th 2015
Watch
In response to this situation, and in support of government efforts to restore
health services, IOM now runs mobile clinics within communities such as
Zameyan Town, bringing essential health care closer to communities.” Read on
“We have some cases here that
are serious. We have older people
who are sick and have been
waiting for this time because of the
distance to the clinic. Thank you
for this work and for bringing us
medicine.”
Armah Golee, Sub Chief, Zarmeyan
In this video, an Ebola survivor shares her
experience of treatment at the Sinje ETU
and reintegration into her community in
Camp 3, Grand Cape Mount County.
IOM Liberia Ebola Response Situation Report │ 15 April 2015
Surveillance, Coordination and Capacity
Building
Infection Prevention and Control staff conduct health screening at checkpoints and
border crossing points.
Working at the Borders to Maintain Zero
At Bo Waterside, the main entry and exit points between Sierra Leone and
Liberia, a steady flow of a diverse profile of travellers can be seen going through
the screening booths. Within thirty minutes, a team of border officers and
health staff screen a group of students travelling to Monrovia for a conference
and a stream of heavy-laden women crossing the border for small-scale trade.
Sherlyn Jargbah, one of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN)
Officers, describes this scene as “business as usual”. However, while the
individuals and reasons for crossing the border remain the same, Sherlyn points
out a difference she attributes to the focus on maintaining zero new Ebola cases
and related changes in border management.
“People in the border towns have no travel documents and intermarry so they
used to cross freely from Tienii to Kenema because we know them.” she
explains, “Now they have to stop for the health check and we fill in the required
forms to help us track people and share information with the Ministry of Health.”
Read on
“This is making a difference because we ask
people crossing the border if they have fever or
headache, care for a sick person or attended a
burial. If they have a high fever ask them to
wait and if it does not drop we coordinate with
health authorities for secondary screening to
take place..”
Yassah Gbelee, IPC Monitor, Bo Waterside
Entry Point
“We receive patients from them [the border
points] with their complaints and history.
Before we give any treatment we make sure
their temperature drops, if it does not we call the
ETU hotline.”
Fanta Sherif, Nurse, Bo Community Clinic
- To support the CHT and border officials’
efforts of ensuring safety of travellers, IOM
is conducting health screening services at Bo
Waterside – the major crossing point
between Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Between the 1st and 10th of April, IOM
screened more than 12,330
travellers at
the border crossing point.
- IOM has been leading orientation sessions
of border officials (including Bureau of
Immigration and Naturalization and Liberia
National Police) on EVD border protocols,
developed by the Border Coordination
Group. IOM has conducted trainings in 4
border districts in Liberia – 24 officials were
trained in GCM, 42 in Nimba, 37 in Lofa and
31 in Gbarpolu.
- IOM is supporting surveillance at other
border crossing points in Grand Cape Mount
County and is assisting in triage
construction for health screening at 4
official crossing points. In addition, IOM is
constructing triages at 3 county checkpoints
in GCM and Bomi, which IOM assists also
with monitoring.
- Since March 25th, IOM has supported CHTs
to conduct active case finding and EVD
awareness activities at 3 markets in GCM
and 2 with CHTs to conduct community
outreach and active case finding in
communities. Over the last 14 days, 3
communities in GCM and 4 in Bomi were
visited by IOM outreach teams providing
WASH and IPC training as well as EVD
prevention and awareness.
Social Mobilization
- Social mobilizers at the county and district
level trained by IOM have provided training
to gCHVs, as well as conducted monitoring
of their work on promoting EVD awareness.
Since March 25th, 15 community leaders, 81
gCHVs in Grand Cape Mount and 60 gCHVs
in Grand Bassa have received training on
EVD prevention and ETU awareness.
IOM Liberia Ebola Response Situation Report │ 15 April 2015
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of
UNMEER speaking at the training on EVD
Border protocols held in Gbarpolu © 2015
“At zero you are at the most critical
point and it is important to maintain
the zero [cases]. We have realized
there is no way you can enforce by
closing borders because communities
will find ways of going around. We can
always turn a crisis into an
opportunity... It is about the whole
border control and the element of free
movement of population so that we
can make sure we have proper
surveillance.”
Meet Fata: Personally and Professionally Involved
- Between March 25th and April 10th IOM
Social Mobilizers, IOM ETU staff members
and CHT representatives participated in 4
radio talk shows in Bomi, 1 in Grand Bassa,
and 5 in Grand Cape Mount. Talk show
topics include raising awareness of mobile
clinics, back to school EVD prevention, and
safe burial
practices.
- gCHVs in Grand Bassa have begun
conducting community outreach activities
using communication tools, such as comic
books for education purposes – 1,520
community members benefited from this
during the week.
Listen
“Give me love; Show me care; I am like you again; I am
a survivor.”
In this interview, a 38 year old woman from
Grand Bassa County shares her personal story of
surviving Ebola and returning to her community.
IOM is partnering with the Ministry of Health to
share the stories of Ebola survivors over the radio
in Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Grand Bassa
counties to tackle stigma within communities. The programmes are used to debunk myths
about Ebola, treatment units and life with survivors as well as promote positive behavior.
Essential Services Revitalization
“As a Liberian and as part of IOM, I feel very proud to be part of the process helping
to eradicate the virus” Fata Konneh, Logistics and Procurement Assistant, IOM Liberia
© IOM 2015
During the week, Fata Konneh works as a key member of the team equipping
staff and operations in Monrovia, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Grand Bassa
counties. When she is not making IOM’s Ebola response activities possible,
Fata also spends time educating members of her community and children at
her daughter’s school to embrace and promote positive health behaviour.
“I tell children that this situation is not only for big people and they can
participate by telling each other. I make everyone understand that we should
always abide by Ministry of Health rules and guidelines to avoid another
Ebola outbreak,” she explains.
- IOM conducts mobile clinics in communities
that lack access to basic health care. Mobile
clinics provide much needed primary care,
vaccination and de-worming services to
communities. Since March 25th, 200 patients
have been provided with medical services
in 2 locations in GCM and 598 patients were
treated at 5 locations in Bomi.
- Within the framework of the back to
schools campaign, IOM has trained
teachers, principals, parents, and teacher
associations on wash and IPC protocols. Over
the last two weeks, the ETUs’ WASH and IPC
teams in the three counties have been
monitoring the status of implementation of
the safe school protocols. I27 schools in GCM
and 8 schools in Grand Bassa were monitored
– the first round of monitoring of schools in
Grand Bassa is now complete.
IOM Liberia Ebola Response Situation Report │ 15 April 2015
Dashboard November 2014 - April 2015
TOTAL
GRAND CAPE
MOUNT
BOMI
GRAND
BASSA
Case Management
# of ETUs operational
3
1
1
1
6
5
14
6
3
0
10
8
Surveillance, Coordination and Capacity Building
# of communities that receive IOM visits for ACF
# of markets and checkpoints supported
23
11
Psychosocial Support and Survivor Follow up
# of protection cases identified and referred to CHTs
23
5
Social Mobilization
# of persons trained
# of persons reached
1,564
46,424
852
10,824
462
29,160
250
6,440
56
1,571
4
134
19
852
2
0
19
200
2
134
18
465
0
0
Essential Services Revitalization
# of health facilities assessed
# of patient consultations by IOM mobile clinics
# of Border Crossing Points or Checkpoints supported
# of border officials trained in health screening
Funding for IOM Liberia Ebola Response
For more information on IOM’s Ebola Response in
Liberia
Please contact: [email protected]
Visit our website: liberia.iom.int
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