Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One must distinguish between treatment centres and management centres. There is a low survival rate, I believe it is 30%, among those who go into what are known as and must be called management centres. The fear is that not enough is being done and the point has been made by various medical people that were Ebola to be present in a western developed country, there would be much greater emphasis on its treatment. Members can see, for example, the amount of effort that goes into the treatment of individuals who return from countries such as Sierra Leone or Liberia. One must draw the point that Ebola is an illness of poverty that comes about because of inequality in society. Unless this is considered as part of the overall picture, the statistics will continue to be extremely bad. I met recently Ireland's ambassador to Sierra Leone and I acknowledge completely that in a sense, her life is on the line, as well as her total commitment. I had the opportunity with the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade to visit Sierra Leone two and a half years ago but another aspect of this problem concerns the breakdown in society and the lack of socialisation. We visited St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired run by Sr. Mary and to think that school had to be stopped and those children now have been left without any support. While I acknowledge that some kind of outreach is going on there, I refer to the social impact and do not believe we are concentrating enough on survival and getting through it. Moreover, one must distinguish between treatment centres and management centres. Another issue concerns burials and the manner in which they are a major cause of contamination.

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