Liberian families pay bribes to keep Ebola affected bodies?

Sorry if this was posted, searched and could not find it. This is terrible and causes further spreading of the virus. I can't believe people can be bribed to do this, just maddening.

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

“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.

Source

This infuriates me. Throwing money, aid, and resources down the toilet trying to help people who wont listen or try to help themselves.

a reply to: Gully

This is unbelievable if true.

And where would these family's get the cash from anyways? From what I've seen, they can't even afford to clean properly.

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist
a reply to: Gully

This is unbelievable if true.

And where would these family's get the cash from anyways? From what I've seen, they can't even afford to clean properly.

Good question. I imagine $40 is a lot of money for some of them.

Since we have troops over there I wonder if this is something they could address. I haven't seen much about what they are actually doing over there.

This is only what some of us have been saying since this outbreak began.

In Africa you are working against cultural pressures. This is an area that has never had an outbreak of Ebola, so plenty of people there refuse to believe this is what the disease is. Then, you have the cultural burial practices which demand that relatives personally wash the body of the deceased and prepare a meal for the relatives who come to say goodbye and everyone weeps and wails and often throws themselves over the body as it's being buried. There are tons of opportunities for direct and indirect contact and more infections there, but they NEED that goodbye. It's very, very important to them to have it.

Imagine if you believed that your relative had to be buried on a platform (as the Native Americans sometimes did) for them receive their proper send off, and then you found out someone burned or buried them? It would be the same kind of devastation for you as what they experience to find out they can't properly send off the souls of their relatives.

So, you see the dilemma?

Then, this particular strain does not show the classic hemorrhagic syndrome as often as its predecessors. So, it gets even harder to convince people that they're dying of something that makes them bleed when only about 18% of patients are actually bleeding.

In the current West Africa outbreak, about 18 percent of people infected with the virus are developing hemorrhagic syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Typically, the Ebola virus leads to hemorrhagic syndrome about 30 percent to 50 percent of the time, said Angela Rasmussen, a research assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Washington.

a reply to: ketsuko
Very good points, and not easy to answer questions. I'm not sure what can be done other than enforcing the bodies are take care of properly and education. Seems like it will be a difficult task.

originally posted by: Gully
a reply to: ketsuko
Very good points, and not easy to answer questions. I'm not sure what can be done other than enforcing the bodies are take care of properly and education. Seems like it will be a difficult task.

It is extremely sad on every side. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. The grief of losing someone like that is enormous, and then to find out you can't do what your beliefs say you should for them ... and if you do, you can cause a spiral that only causes that much more pain and loss for your family.

It's a horrible tragedy.

a reply to: ketsuko

I starred you, because you speak so beautifully about the issue. I respect you, but I cannot see the dilemma.

It's simple.

The burial practices are going to kill them (and possibly us). They have to stop because of that. Causing other's deaths in order to get that send off is selfish and deplorable.

I can't feel what you feel ketsuko, I just can't. I guess it's good that there are people like you who can.

originally posted by: ValentineWiggin
a reply to: ketsuko

I starred you, because you speak so beautifully about the issue. I respect you, but I cannot see the dilemma.

It's simple.

The burial practices are going to kill them (and possibly us). They have to stop because of that. Causing other's deaths in order to get that send off is selfish and deplorable.

I can't feel what you feel ketsuko, I just can't. I guess it's good that there are people like you who can.

Maybe it's because I recently lost my last grandparent, and am thinking about that funeral and how important it is for the family to be able to have that ceremony.

originally posted by: Gully

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist
a reply to: Gully

This is unbelievable if true.

And where would these family's get the cash from anyways? From what I've seen, they can't even afford to clean properly.

Good question. I imagine $40 is a lot of money for some of them.

Since we have troops over there I wonder if this is something they could address. I haven't seen much about what they are actually doing over there.

I have a strong suspicion that the troops are where they are getting the money. They could be selling souvenirs, drugs, sex. Well, maybe not sex, under the circumstances, but who knows.

a reply to: ValentineWiggin

We've been doing that for years in Africa , the middle east , Tennessee...
Stop helping animals that wont help themselves on all levels.