NPR

The Forgotten Ebola Survivors Of Sierra Leone

The West African country has about 4,000 Ebola survivors. They still face physical and mental issues. And as Ebola has faded from the news, government support has dwindled.
"They have forgotten us ... and many are still really suffering," says Ebola survivor Haja Bah.

"Cellal alaa cogu — health has no price," sighs Haja Bah, looking out on a dusty street in the sprawling eastern suburbs of Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. "But they have forgotten us ... and many are still really suffering."

Between 2013 and 2016, the Ebola virus claimed more than 11,000 lives across West Africa. Bah is one of about 4,000 Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone. Four years after the outbreak began devastating West Africa and two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the last flare-up, Bah and other survivors still cope with an array of physical and mental issues. They have channeled their frustration into a lawsuit that seeks to hold the government accountable for the support they were promised — and say they have not received.

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