Ebola Survivor, Worker Named A TIME Person Of The Year Dies After Childbirth Complications, Lack Of Proper Medical Care Due To Stigma

The Guardian: Ebola survivor and frontline fighter dies after childbirth complications
“A woman named a TIME magazine person of the year in 2014 for her frontline work fighting Ebola in West Africa has died from childbirth complications in Liberia. Hospital staff were reluctant to treat her because of the stigma that still surrounds the disease, according to her family. Salomé Karwah lost her parents, her brother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a niece in the Ebola outbreak that swept her home country in August 2014. She also contracted the disease, but survived…” (McVeigh, 2/28).

NPR: Liberian Nurse Who Recovered From Ebola Dies In Childbirth
“…I think what this tells us is that even before Ebola hit Liberia, the country suffered a massive insufficiency in medical care, and then Ebola came and wiped out what little there was left. So you just have a real deficit of doctors, of good care, of proper practices. So something as simple as childbirth or a blood infection, for example, just can go untreated. And you add on top of that fear of Ebola, the legacy of Ebola, and it just makes this toxic mix,” said Aryn Baker of TIME magazine (Inskeep, 2/28).

Scientific American: A Woman Survives Ebola but Not Pregnancy in Africa
“…Childbirth complications, known in medical terms as maternal mortality, kill more than 800 women globally each day, according to the World Health Organization. Salomé’s death is a reminder that a woman can survive conflicts and crises of historic proportions yet die giving birth…” (Yasmin, 2/28).

TIME: Liberian Ebola Fighter, a TIME Person of the Year, Dies in Childbirth
“…News of Karwah’s death rippled far beyond her small community in Liberia. Those who knew her for her tireless cheer in the MSF Ebola treatment clinic were devastated…” (Baker, 2/27).

United Press International: Ebola nurse named Time Person of the Year dies after giving birth
“…Ella Watson-Stryker, a Doctors Without Borders health promoter who worked with Harris, said, ‘To survive Ebola and then die in the larger yet silent epidemic of health system failure, I have no words'” (Adamczyk, 2/28).

Washington Post: Once TIME’s ‘Person of the Year,’ an Ebola fighter dies in childbirth due to stigma of virus
“…Even without the stigma [of Ebola], maternal health care in Liberia is abysmal. About one in 28 mothers die in the weeks surrounding childbirth, according to the international public health organization Partners in Health. The Liberian government spends about $50 per person a year on health care. Many hospitals lack basic equipment, medicine, and even electricity…” (Bearak, 2/28).

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