Health workers and volunteers read out handouts to local villagers on how to protect themselves from ebola virus, Liberia. (Source: Rex Features / Eyepress / SIPA)
Pharmacists working in West Africa have spoken about the overwhelming scale of the challenges they have faced in Liberia in the battle against the Ebola virus.
They paint a picture of a system unable to cope and a problem that is beyond the “capacity and responsibility of any single government”.
They speak of pharmacists ill-equipped to manage the disease and of pharmacy technicians dying because they lack the necessary protective clothing.
The frank disclosures come from Lloyd Matowe, program director for Pharmaceutical Systems Africa — an organisation devoted to developing sustainable supply chains in developing countries — and John H Harris, from the Liberian government’s health and social welfare department, where he is responsible for supply chain management.