10-09-2014, 05:35 AM
Ebola Cases Reported Up Sharply in Liberia
By RICK GLADSTONESEPT. 8, 2014
The World Health Organization issued a dire Ebola warning on Monday concerning Liberia, saying that the number of afflicted patients was increasing exponentially, that nearly all the country has confirmed cases and that all new treatment facilities were overwhelmed, "pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload."
The description of the crisis in Liberia, which along with Sierra Leone and Guinea are the three West African countries at the center of the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded, suggested an even more chaotic situation in Liberia than had been thought, with the highest cumulative numbers of reported cases and deaths.
In another ominous piece of news, the organization said one of its own doctors working at a government-run Ebola treatment center in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, would be evacuated after having tested positive for the disease.
Continue reading the main story
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which recently treated and discharged two American missionary health workers infected with Ebola, said in a separate announcement that it would be receiving a third patient by air ambulance from West Africa on Tuesday. It was unclear if that patient was the same person, whose identity was not disclosed. At the same time, the authorities in Sierra Leone elaborated on their three-day plan, announced Saturday, for a nationwide curfew this month to allow emergency teams to visit every home in the country of six million from Sept. 19 to 21 to find people infected with Ebola and remove the dead.
Despite concerns among some health advocacy groups that such a measure could backfire, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone said in a nationwide address that "we have no choice but to go into it with great commitment and determination."
Sierra Leone has more than 1,200 cases and has had about 500 deaths, but in relative terms it is still faring better than Liberia, a country with a smaller population which has been hit with nearly 2,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths, according to World Health Organization figures.
"Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," the organization said in a statement on its website. "The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centers."
Of the 152 health care workers in Liberia who have been infected, the statement said, 79 have died.
The paucity of medical personnel in Liberia, with a population of 4.4 million, was a severe problem even before the Ebola outbreak escalated into a crisis. The World Health Organization's statement said that when the outbreak began, Liberia had only one doctor per 100,000 people. "Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly," said the statement, titled "Situation in Liberia: Nonconventional Interventions Needed."
The organization said its new assessment was the result of a two-week investigation by its own emergency experts collaborating with the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.
Continue reading the main story
In Montserrado County, which includes the capital, Monrovia, and is home to one million people, the statement said at least 1,000 beds were urgently needed, as opposed to the 240 now available. Even with 260 more beds planned, the statement said, "only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met within the new few weeks and months."
The statement singled out the risks in Monrovia's West Point slum, where the authorities imposed an ill-fated Ebola quarantine last month that provoked deadly riots and was lifted after 10 days.
Ebola, a virus first discovered in 1976, causes high fevers, extreme fatigue and internal bleeding, with a fatality rate as high as 90 percent and no known cure. The health organization has estimated that it could cost $600 million to fight the scourge and that 20,000 people could be infected.
At an emergency meeting at the organization's Geneva headquarters last week, experts said two potential vaccines could be available as soon as November and would first be administered to health care workers most exposed to the disease. The experts also recommended expedited treatment of other experimental therapies, including serums derived from the blood of Ebola survivors.
By RICK GLADSTONESEPT. 8, 2014
The World Health Organization issued a dire Ebola warning on Monday concerning Liberia, saying that the number of afflicted patients was increasing exponentially, that nearly all the country has confirmed cases and that all new treatment facilities were overwhelmed, "pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload."
The description of the crisis in Liberia, which along with Sierra Leone and Guinea are the three West African countries at the center of the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded, suggested an even more chaotic situation in Liberia than had been thought, with the highest cumulative numbers of reported cases and deaths.
In another ominous piece of news, the organization said one of its own doctors working at a government-run Ebola treatment center in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, would be evacuated after having tested positive for the disease.
Continue reading the main story
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which recently treated and discharged two American missionary health workers infected with Ebola, said in a separate announcement that it would be receiving a third patient by air ambulance from West Africa on Tuesday. It was unclear if that patient was the same person, whose identity was not disclosed. At the same time, the authorities in Sierra Leone elaborated on their three-day plan, announced Saturday, for a nationwide curfew this month to allow emergency teams to visit every home in the country of six million from Sept. 19 to 21 to find people infected with Ebola and remove the dead.
Despite concerns among some health advocacy groups that such a measure could backfire, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone said in a nationwide address that "we have no choice but to go into it with great commitment and determination."
Sierra Leone has more than 1,200 cases and has had about 500 deaths, but in relative terms it is still faring better than Liberia, a country with a smaller population which has been hit with nearly 2,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths, according to World Health Organization figures.
"Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," the organization said in a statement on its website. "The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centers."
Of the 152 health care workers in Liberia who have been infected, the statement said, 79 have died.
The paucity of medical personnel in Liberia, with a population of 4.4 million, was a severe problem even before the Ebola outbreak escalated into a crisis. The World Health Organization's statement said that when the outbreak began, Liberia had only one doctor per 100,000 people. "Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly," said the statement, titled "Situation in Liberia: Nonconventional Interventions Needed."
The organization said its new assessment was the result of a two-week investigation by its own emergency experts collaborating with the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.
Continue reading the main story
In Montserrado County, which includes the capital, Monrovia, and is home to one million people, the statement said at least 1,000 beds were urgently needed, as opposed to the 240 now available. Even with 260 more beds planned, the statement said, "only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met within the new few weeks and months."
The statement singled out the risks in Monrovia's West Point slum, where the authorities imposed an ill-fated Ebola quarantine last month that provoked deadly riots and was lifted after 10 days.
Ebola, a virus first discovered in 1976, causes high fevers, extreme fatigue and internal bleeding, with a fatality rate as high as 90 percent and no known cure. The health organization has estimated that it could cost $600 million to fight the scourge and that 20,000 people could be infected.
At an emergency meeting at the organization's Geneva headquarters last week, experts said two potential vaccines could be available as soon as November and would first be administered to health care workers most exposed to the disease. The experts also recommended expedited treatment of other experimental therapies, including serums derived from the blood of Ebola survivors.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass