Eduardo Ribes, coordinator of the international cooperation area of the Order of Saint John of God (Aragon-San Rafael Province) and representative of Juan Ciudad ONGD in Murcia, and the Councilor for Development Cooperation of the Murcia City Council, Rebeca PĂ©rez, held a working meeting to assess the project for the new Isolation Unit of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Lunsar (Sierra Leone), which had the collaboration of the Murcia City Council through this department.
As Ribes stated, "We must thank the Murcia City Council for its collaboration on a project that has been a significant help to Sierra Leonean society as a whole."
Following the Ebola epidemic, the Sierra Leone government believes it is essential that all hospitals in the country have isolation units for patients with infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera, among others, to prevent future epidemics.
"Through the NGO Juan Ciudad," whose center in the Region of Murcia is located at the JesĂșs Abandonado Foundation, "the Order of Saint John of God seeks, with the help of society and institutions, to support the work of the various centers in Africa, Latin America, and Asia," Ribes emphasized.
For her part, Councilor Rebeca PĂ©rez emphasizes that "the City Council and the Department of Development Cooperation always address problems head-on, and this is one example," allowing the triage unit to provide much faster diagnoses.
The Order of St. John of God has a hospital and health center in Sierra Leone. These hospitals were affected by Ebola and reopened permanently in January 2015. During that year, they treated 15 people in various healthcare areas, including pediatrics, maternity, surgery, emergencies, and the laboratory for diagnosing malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, and more.
