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TorchTheWitch

(11,065 posts)
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 05:06 PM Oct 2014

Some families affected by Ebola in Liberia pay bribes to keep the bodies

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-families-bodies-bribes-153423993.html

Health workers scrambling to contain the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia now have to contend with an outbreak of corruption among those detailed to collect the bodies of victims.

The Wall Street Journal reports that retrieval teams are accepting bribes from families of Ebola victims to issue death certificates that say their loved ones died of other causes, allowing them to keep their bodies for a traditional burial.

"The family says the person is not an Ebola patient, and [the retrieval team] pull them away from the other people," Vincent Chounse, a community outreach worker on the outskirts of Monrovia, told the paper. "Then they say, 'We can give you a certificate from the Ministry of Health that it wasn’t Ebola.' Sometimes it is $40. Sometimes it is $50. ... Then they offer bags to them and [the family] carry on their own thing." A teenager in Montserrado told the Journal he saw the father of his neighbor pay $150 for a certificate that said his son's corpse was Ebola-free.

Government Information Minister Lewis Brown told the paper his office has received reports of health workers issuing fake death certificates, but he added that no burial team has "a capacity to go and issue certificates."



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Some families affected by Ebola in Liberia pay bribes to keep the bodies (Original Post) TorchTheWitch Oct 2014 OP
This outbreak will definitely get worse JimDandy Oct 2014 #1
If this is true, I seriously think we need yeoman6987 Oct 2014 #4
Building more hospitals, helping educate people, that is a "total waste" and should be stopped uppityperson Oct 2014 #7
exactly TorchTheWitch Oct 2014 #8
If it's true, it's no wonder Ebola is spreading so fast in Liberia meow2u3 Oct 2014 #2
get to know what the populous of these countries are like TorchTheWitch Oct 2014 #5
Oy! City Lights Oct 2014 #3
This thing will never be contained scarystuffyo Oct 2014 #6
 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
4. If this is true, I seriously think we need
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 05:53 PM
Oct 2014

To pull our troops out of there. Seriously it is a never ending cycle if families are keeping Ebola strickened bodies. I almost think we should stop aid until this stops. Now we are flushing money down the drain. Total waste. Hopefully something will be done to stop this or the country will be whipped out of exisistance.

uppityperson

(115,677 posts)
7. Building more hospitals, helping educate people, that is a "total waste" and should be stopped
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 06:32 PM
Oct 2014

as it won't help? I am of the opposite opinion that much much much more aid is needed, and people to protect the care givers and educators.

TorchTheWitch

(11,065 posts)
8. exactly
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 11:54 PM
Oct 2014

And if that help had been brought in a hell of a lot sooner it wouldn't have grown to what it has. Hospitals and clinics were already abysmal to the needs of the populous, and Ebola has just made this so very much worse. MUCH more educated people and supplies are needed or the virus will never be contained. And it still may not since it's been let go for this long without the rest of the world doing a thing to help. Pulling people out will only insure that it runs amok spreading even more throughout the affected countries killing untold amounts of people as well as risking the spread outside of the affected countries and outside the African continent giving the virus every chance to mutate into something far more contagious, infectious and deadly.

meow2u3

(24,764 posts)
2. If it's true, it's no wonder Ebola is spreading so fast in Liberia
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 05:26 PM
Oct 2014

If what the WSJ is reporting is true. BTA, it's a Murdoch rag, so I wouldn't rule out propaganda.

TorchTheWitch

(11,065 posts)
5. get to know what the populous of these countries are like
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 06:03 PM
Oct 2014

They're desperately poor, their governments are horrendous, the people are generally ignorant and many believe that Ebola doesn't exist, is witchcraft or a hoax by the government to steal peoples' blood, etc. They become terrified of Ebola workers coming into their villages wearing hazmat suits because of how people look wearing them and run away. Many volunteers have opted not to wear them in searching for sick people and informing villagers about Ebola and just not going into their homes and remaining several feet away from anyone. Some villagers run and hide anyway for unknown reasons.

These countries are third world and among the most woefully poor countries that exist. They're war torn, and corruption was already par for the course. It is not out of the realm of possibility at all that some people are bribing workers to keep their ill or dead family members in order to give them traditional burials. Many people were just hiding their ill or dead anyway. Dead bodies were being dumped on the streets.

 

scarystuffyo

(733 posts)
6. This thing will never be contained
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 06:24 PM
Oct 2014

It's going to infect 100's of thousands

and 4000 of our troops are being ordered to deploy there


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