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                      Ebola Weakens Liberia Food Security

   by Joe DeCapua

   Liberia has been the hardest hit country in West Africa's Ebola
   outbreak with more than three-thousand cases. Fourteen of the country's
   fifteen counties have been affected. Some of the first cases in Liberia
   were reported in northern Lofa County. The U.N. Food and Agriculture
   Organization said the outbreak has had a big effect on food security
   there.

   The FAO has just completed a four-day assessment of Lofa County, where
   a three-man team visited the towns of Foya and Barkedu. The far
   northern area is close to the border with Guinea. That's where the
   World Health Organization reports the Ebola outbreak probably began
   last December with the case of a two year old boy.

   FAO representative Alexis Bonte said that Lofa County residents are
   "terrified at how fast the disease is spreading." He says that
   "neighbors, friends and family members are dying within just a few days
   of exhibiting shocking symptoms."

   They often don't understand what's happening and blame the symptoms on
   bad water or food. And they're too afraid to work the fields.

   Bonte, who was part of the assessment team in Lofa, said, "It's an area
   where you had a lot of traffic coming from the other countries -- and
   specifically for Barkedu, a city where MSF told me that 100-percent of
   the population has been in contact with an affected person."

   MSF is the French acronym for the medical aid group Doctors Without
   Borders.

   Bonte said people were not able to get food at many markets in Lofa
   County, where food production had fallen from 10 to 25 percent
   depending on the area.

   "All the markets had been closed by the local authorities with good
   reason to avoid that people will meet and take risk of shaking hands
   and hugging and so on. So, it's empty markets with a lot of grass where
   normally you don't have grass because people are walking there," he
   said.

   The food that was available cost much more. The price of fuel rose
   sharply, too.

   The FAO assessment in northern Liberia found the Ebola outbreak was
   "washing away years of progress and hard work." The disease brought
   livelihoods to a halt, so any savings local residents had were quickly
   depleted.

   For example, many women were not able to repay their loans used to
   start small farming-related businesses. What's more, the FAO reports
   women have borne the brunt of the disease "in terms of infections and
   deaths"  They are on the "frontline" providing care to relatives at
   home and in health clinics.

   What's happening in Lofa County today could impact food security next
   year. The FAO said residents need immediate assistance, including rice
   and vegetable seeds and cash transfers."

   However, he said there is some good news. In the crossroads town of
   Voinjama - which serves as the county capital - authorities have
   approved the first weekly markets.

   "So now we go back to a normal kind of life and maybe the trade and the
   markets will reopen progressively. And that will facilitate the
   movement of cash and also for the women to make sure they can buy and
   sell the food for their families," he said.

   The Food and Agriculture Organization will enlist the help of Liberian
   women's associations to try to restart the local economies. The groups
   will be offered financial agreements to help raise awareness about
   Ebola and manage food and seed production.

   Bonte said, "So the income that they will earn through these financial
   agreements will be used first to cover basic needs - the food, health,
   etc. But also will be invested to replenish the capital of their
   savings and loan schemes."

   Bonte said one of the biggest challenges will be to convince donors
   that ensuring food security is a major part of the fight against Ebola.
   He added there will be no good health without food security.

   The World Health Organization said "the true number" of Ebola deaths in
   Liberia will likely never be known. For example, it says the bodies of
   many who have died from the disease in the very poor West Pointe area
   of Monrovia have been thrown into two nearby rivers.

   The WHO also warns that the number of malaria deaths this year in
   Liberia may soon surpass Ebola. It said stocks of anti-malarial bednets
   and medicines have been depleted.

   To end on a more positive note, the new 120-bed Island Clinic has
   opened with the support of the WHO, UNICEF, the World Food Program and
   USAID. And soon, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
   opens a new diagnostic lab. It would be able to confirm a case of Ebola
   within four hours of taking a blood sample.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/ebola-liberia-fao-23sept14/2459532.html