UN training Ebola survivors to help with care

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations has begun training survivors of the Ebola outbreak to help treat the soaring number of cases in West Africa, since the survivors are believed to be immune to that particular strain of Ebola.

UNICEF’s crisis communications chief told reporters today that the training has just begun in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Sarah Crowe says “Ebola has hijacked every aspect of life” in the hardest-hit countries and left an estimated 3,700 orphans.

Ebola has turned large parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea into a no-touch culture, which has been especially hard on children. Crowe says the new care centers with Ebola survivors can offer the love and attention a small child needs, without the fear that has made life “a very unhuman experience” across the region.

The first of the government-run Interim Care Centers opened last week in the outskirts of Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. Crowe says “survivors will still largely follow a ‘no-touch’ protocol for older children” but will be able to touch and hold infants who need more personal attention and care.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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