As Liberia nears the end of the Ebola outbreak with days left to be declared Ebola free, many foreign interventions are gradually being rolled out. The latest intervention to come to an end is the American Public Health Service managed Monrovia Medical Unit which was on Thursday decommissioned.
The Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) a 25-bed field hospital located in Margibi County, Liberia was constructed by the U.S. Department of Defense and staffed by the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. At the end of last year, U.S President Barack Obama ordered the largest American intervention ever in a global health crisis, hoping to end the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history.
Many argued that the American government reaction to the epidemic had been slow and inadequate; President Obama announced his plan in mid-September, focusing on Liberia, America’s historical ally. But even before the first treatment center built by the American military, the number of Ebola cases in Liberia had dropped drastically, casting doubt on the American strategy of building facilities that took months to complete.
But United States Ambassador to Liberia Deborah Malac said, the MMU played a crucial role in saving the lives of Liberian and foreign health care workers infected with the Ebola Virus Disease. “Before your [U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps] arrival, health care workers feared that if they became infected with Ebola while treating those sick with the disease, they might not receive proper care,” Ambassador Malac said.
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