Ebola disrupts Liberia birth records, poses trafficking threat-UN
Source: Reuters
LONDON, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - West Africa's Ebola epidemic has disrupted birth registrations in Liberia, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without citizenship and in danger of being trafficked or illegally adopted, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Friday.
The closure of health facilities and limited health services due to the Ebola outbreak has halted Liberia's progress in registering births in recent years, according to UNICEF.
Before the Ebola outbreak in December 2013, birth registration rates in Liberia increased to 25 percent in 2013 from four percent in 2007, then the world's second lowest rate, according to the country's demographic and health surveys.
But the number of birth registrations fell to 48,000 in 2014 from 79,000 in 2013, before the onset of the virus, and only 700 children had their births registered between January and May this year, UNICEF said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/31/liberia-ebola-births-idUSL5N10A31T20150731
