Liberia: Rebooting Public Health Services

A year after the start of the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberia has made tremendous progress in controlling the virus. In spite of a new case that was confirmed on March 20 following two weeks with no new cases, hope remains that the country will soon be declared Ebola-free. 

The Ebola outbreak, however, has severely impacted the country's public health services. Many medical facilities unable to handle infected patients closed at some point during the spread of the disease and dozens of health personnel died fighting it. Today most functioning facilities continue to provide reduced services as compared to before the outbreak.

As a result, the population is struggling to access medical care for non Ebola-related diseases. Routine vaccination programs have been interrupted and infectious diseases, such as measles, are becoming rampant, especially among young children.