Ebola epidemic is overwhelming health resources, WHO admits
UN health agency says epidemic in West Africa is overwhelming resources amid appeal for massive worldwide emergency response
The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa is growing faster than authorities can manage them, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, renewing a call for health workers from around the world to go to the region to help.
As the death toll rose to more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases, WHO director general Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva the sheer size of the outbreak - particularly in the three hardest-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - required a massive emergency response.
Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, said the UN children's agency was using innovative ways to tackle the epidemic, including telling people to "use whatever means they have, such as plastic bags, to cover themselves if they have to deal with sick members of their family".
"The Ebola treatment centres are full, there are only three in the country. Families need help in finding new ways to deal with this and deal with their loved ones and give them care without exposing themselves to this infection," she said.
The number of new patients is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them
"It is quite surreal and everywhere there is a sense of this virus taking over the whole country," Crowe said. "We do not have enough partners on the ground. Many Liberians say they feel abandoned."