The Survivors: Portraits Of Liberians Who Recovered From Ebola

Ebola is ravaging Liberia, the country counts for more than half the Ebola deaths with a total of 2,458 out of the 4,500 across Western Africa. While the media has been focusing on the deaths generated by the outbreak, there has been very little reporting about survivors of the terrible disease.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Moore visited an Ebola treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia and took photographs of survivors as they spoke about the brothers, sisters, husbands and wives they lost to the disease.

Mohammed Bah, 39

Ebola survivor Mohammed Bah stands at the MSF Ebola treatment center after meeting with fellow survivors on October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. Bah, who works as a driver, said he lost his wife, mother, father and sister to Ebola. The disease leaves survivors immune to the strain that sicked them. He said he spent a week at the MSF center recovering from the disease. Like many other Ebola survivors, he said that the stigma of having had Ebola as been difficult. ‘I’ve been rejected by everyone. I’m alone with my two children,’ he said.

Jeremra Cooper, 16

Ebola survivor Jeremra Cooper wipes his face from the heat while in the low-risk section of the MSF Ebola treatment center on October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. The 8th grade student said he lost six family members to the Ebola epidemic before coming down sick with the disease himself and being sent to the MSF center, where he recovered after one month.

Lassana Jabeteh, 36

Ebola survivor Lassana Jabeteh, 36, smiles before his shift as a nurse’s assistant at the MSF Ebola treatment center on October 12 in Paynesville, Liberia. He said that he previously worked as a taxi driver and that he thinks he caught Ebola when he transported a sick policeman who vomited in his car on the way to the hospital. MSF hired Jabeteh after he recovered in their treatment center and he now counsels and comforts others stricken by the disease.

Benetha Coleman, 24

Ebola survivor Benetha Coleman, 24, stands in the low-risk section of the MSF Ebola treatment center after attending a survivors’ meeting on October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. She said that her husband and two children died due to the disease.

Sontay Massaley, 37

Sontay Massaley smiles upon her release from the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treatment center on Oct. 12 in Paynesville, Liberia. Massaley, who spent eight days recovering from the disease in the center, said she worked as a vendor in a market before contracting the virus.

James Mulbah, 2

Ebola survivor James Mulbah, 2, stands with his mother, Tamah Mulbah, 28, who also recovered from Ebola in the low-risk section of the MSF Ebola treatment center after survivors’ meeting on October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia.

 

Anthony Naileh, 46 and Bendu Naileh, 34 

Husband and wife Ebola survivors Anthony Naileh and Bendu Naileh stand at the MSF Ebola treatment center after meeting with fellow survivors on Oct. 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. Anthony said he is a stenographer at the Liberian Senate and plans to go back to work for the January session. Bendu, a nurse, said she thought she caught Ebola after laying her hands in prayer on a nephew who had the disease in August. She then sickened her husband, who cared for her.

Varney Taylor, 26

Ebola survivor Varney Taylor stands in the low-risk section of the MSF Ebola treatment center after attending a survivors’ meeting on Oct. 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. He said he lost three family members to the disease and believes he contracted Ebola while carrying the body of his aunt after her death.

James Harris, 29

Ebola survivor James Harris, 29, stands for a portrait before a shift as a nurse’s assistant at the MSF Ebola treatment center on October 12 in Paynesville, Liberia. Harris spent two weeks recovering from the disease. The former construction worker said that he believes he caught the disease while caring for his father, who died of Ebola at home. He now counsels others at the treatment center.

Ami Subah, 39

Ebola survivor Ami Subah stands inside the MSF treatment center after meeting with fellow survivors on October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. Subah, a midwife, said she thinks she caught Ebola when she delivered a baby boy from a sick mother. The boy, she said, survived, but the mother died. She said she has not had work since her recovery, due to the stigma of having had Ebola. “Nobody will even let me draw water from the community well,'” she said.

Source: John Moore/Getty Images