W Africa struggles to contain Ebola as death toll mounts
4 Sept 2014 5:46 AM IST
Doctors in Liberia were out on strike as they struggled to cope with the worst outbreak of Ebola on record, while the global aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said 800 more beds for Ebola patients were urgently needed in the Liberian capital Monrovia alone, while in Sierra Leone highly infectious bodies were rotting in the streets. Governments and aid organizations have scrambled to contain the disease, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has killed
more than 1,500 in West Africa since March.
In an address to United Nations member states, MSF President Joanne Liu said, ‘Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it.’ She said aid charities and West African governments did not have the capacity to stem the outbreak and needed intervention by foreign states.
Slamming what she called ‘a global coalition of inaction,’ Liu called for the urgent dispatch of field hospitals with isolation wards and mobile medical laboratories.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said biological disaster response teams were needed to support West Africa’s buckling healthcare systems. As hospitals and Ebola treatment centers battled to contain the disease and tend to the sick and dying, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said a federal contract worth up to $42.3 million would help accelerate testing of an experimental Ebola virus treatment being developed by a private owned company.
more than 1,500 in West Africa since March.
In an address to United Nations member states, MSF President Joanne Liu said, ‘Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it.’ She said aid charities and West African governments did not have the capacity to stem the outbreak and needed intervention by foreign states.
Slamming what she called ‘a global coalition of inaction,’ Liu called for the urgent dispatch of field hospitals with isolation wards and mobile medical laboratories.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said biological disaster response teams were needed to support West Africa’s buckling healthcare systems. As hospitals and Ebola treatment centers battled to contain the disease and tend to the sick and dying, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said a federal contract worth up to $42.3 million would help accelerate testing of an experimental Ebola virus treatment being developed by a private owned company.
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