The international group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Tuesday warned that the world is losing the battle against Ebola and lamented that treatment centers in West Africa have been “reduced to places where people go to die alone.”
In separate remarks after a UN meeting on the crisis, the WHO director said everyone involved had underestimated the outbreak, which has now killed more than 1,500 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
UN officials implored governments worldwide to send medical workers and material contributions.
Photo: AFP
MSF, which has treated more than 1,000 Ebola patients in West Africa since March, is completely overwhelmed by the disease, MSF president Joanne Liu said.
She called on other countries to contribute civilian and military medical personnel familiar with biological disasters.
“Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it,” Liu said at a UN forum on the outbreak. “Ebola treatment centers are reduced to places where people go to die alone, where little more than palliative care is offered.”
Photo: AFP
In Sierra Leone, she said, infectious bodies are rotting in the streets. Liberia had to build a new crematorium instead of new Ebola care centers.
At the UN meeting, WHO Director Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) thanked countries that have helped, but said: “We need more from you. And we also need those countries that have not come on board.”
Later, at a news conference, she warned that the outbreak will get worse before it gets better.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said the situation is now the world’s first Ebola epidemic, given how widely it is spreading.
US health officials on Tuesday announced a US$24.9 million, 18-month contract with Mapp Biopharmaceutical to speed development of an experimental drug, ZMapp.
As part of the project, Mapp is to make a small amount of the drug for early-stage safety testing, while working with the US Department of Health and Human Services to accelerate the manufacturing process.
Also on Tuesday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said that food in countries hit by Ebola is becoming more expensive and will become scarcer because some farmers cannot reach their fields.
Authorities have cordoned off entire towns in an effort to halt the virus’ spread.
Surrounding countries have closed land borders, and airlines have suspended flights to and from the affected countries. Seaports are losing traffic, restricting food imports to the hardest-hit countries.
Those countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — all rely on grain from abroad to feed their people, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
In related news, a British nurse infected with Ebola while working in Sierra Leone was discharged from a London hospital yesterday after recovering from the disease following treatment with ZMapp.
“I was very lucky,” said William Pooley, who had been working as a volunteer in one of the worst hit areas and was flown out of Africa on a specially equipped British military plane.
“I had some unpleasant symptoms but nothing compared to some of the worst of the disease, especially when people end up dying,” he said. “I wish that the level of care I’ve received here could be provided there.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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