By Laura Jean Ridge | Co-founder, Nursing for All
Nursing for All was delighted by the May 9 news that Liberia is now Ebola-free.
Throughout the epidemic, NFA's partner nurses fought the virus in a variety of ways: by distributing buckets and chlorine solution so local residents could make their own disinfectant, by conducting open-air educational sessions on signs and symptoms of Ebola, and by partnering with local churches and mosques to get their messages about Ebola out there.
For this report, we'd like to highlight the efforts of one particular nurse, Christina, and her efforts to both fight Ebola and protect the HIV-positive women she works with during her usual programming. Here is her story:
Program Spotlight: HIV during Ebola
Christina Andrews began a HIV/AIDS counseling and testing program at Missionary of Charity Home in April 2014. Sadly, after the death of seven staff members from Ebola virus disease in August, her site closed. All 162 patients were discharged.
In response, Christina coordinated with the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infection Program to pick up and home deliver the medications for ten of the fifteen HIV-positive patients. Throughout the epidemic, Christina continued to deliver medications and complete home visits.
Like several of NFA's other nurse partners, she also developed an Ebola education program for her community, in hopes of slowing the epidemic. Through this program, she has distributed the buckets and chlorine needed to prepare the disinfectant that kills Ebola and prevents its spread. With NFA's support, she distributed over 200 buckets to members of her community.
Now that the epidemic has ended in Liberia, efforts like Christina's are getting the recognition they deserve. A January 2015 article in the New York Times noted that many public health experts credited community-based programs which, "educated their communities about Ebola...and..set up hand-washing stations at key spots" with the decline of the epidemic in Liberia.
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