International Community ‘Must Recommit Our Respect And Gratitude’ To Ebola Workers

New York Times: Letter to the Editor: Ebola Stigma in Liberia
Joseph Cahalan, chief executive of Concern Worldwide U.S.

“Re ‘Liberia’s Shunned “Ebola Burners”‘ … Liberia is still not Ebola-free, but the epidemic has ended. This would not have been possible without the courage and selflessness of the men and women who took on the most terrible but essential of responsibilities: body removal, burial, and cremation. Our burial teams in Sierra Leone were instrumental to the end of the outbreak there … [and t]hey face the same stigma and ostracism that you report ‘virtually destroyed’ the lives of Liberia’s crematory workers. … All of us — the humanitarian community, media, government, international bodies — who so proudly celebrated the Ebola fighters just a year ago must recommit our respect and gratitude. They are the heroes who played a leading role in ending one of the most serious public health emergencies of our time” (12/15).

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