HOW LIBERIA’S FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS ARE PROTECTING US ALL

Nearly a third of Liberia’s population lives in rural areas which health experts say have the potential to be hotspots for emerging infectious diseases that could in turn break out into major epidemics or, in the worst case, pandemics. Traditional healthcare provision systems often aren't a viable way to address this threat in many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, due to limited national budgets and often inadequate infrastructure. But Liberia has found remarkable early success via another approach: recruiting members of rural communities to act as the crucial first line of defence against infectious diseases – helping to spot them before they become a wider problem.