Sillah Kargbo is a long way from Sierre Leone, but distance has not eased his heartache as countries in west Africa continue to battle the deadly Ebola virus.
The Edmonton man lost his cousin to Ebola last week. She was a nurse helping patients infected with a virus that would eventually take her life.
“She is a hero,” said Kargbpo. “All the people who have lost their lives in the process of helping others – we consider them heroes.”
Kargbpo lives in constant anxiety, wondering who’s next, and he’s not alone.
“There is a gentleman who lost four relatives; a friend in Calgary lost three relatives; it’s very hard to find a Sierra Leonean family who hasn’t been affected.”
The number of people in Sierra Leone becoming infected is growing by the hundreds every week.
“In human history, this will go down as a gargantuan disaster,” said Paul Carrick of Canmore-based Cause Canada. “So we must engage in this conflict.”
Cause Canada is one of several organizations scrambling to find funding. It has partnered with two other charities to building the only isolation centre in northern Sierra Leone. So far all of its funding has come from private donors; it desperately needs more.
“The Centre for Disease Control in the U.S. is saying the infection rate is 2,000 new cases by December,”: said Carrick. “By December that could be as many as 10,000 cases per week and by the end of January we could see 1.4 million people with Ebola.”
The World Health Organization says 1,200 beds are needed in Sierra Leone but the country has less than a third of that number.
There’s also a dire shortage of doctors and nurses.“We can send all the medical equipment, helicopters and ambulances, but what we really need is manpower,” said Kargbpo.
He is also asking for prayers.
“We are asking Canada and everyone in the world not to their back on us. We need everybody’s help, right now.”
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