West Africa ebola pandemic escalates with Sierra Leone deaths

Thursday, June 19, 2014
By Paul Martin

Martin Cuddihy
ABC.net.au
Thursday, June 19, 2014

MARK COLVIN: The ebola outbreak in West Africa has worsened significantly in the last two weeks.

New figures from the World Health Organization show more than a 60 per cent rise in the death toll.

Three-hundred-and-thirty-seven people have now succumbed.

Most of the deaths have occurred in Guinea, but authorities are particularly worried about the outbreak in Sierra Leone, where dozens of people have died from the virus in one part of the country.

Almost all the deaths are in remote villages with next to no healthcare services.

Africa correspondent Martin Cuddihy reports.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: It starts with flu-like symptoms, so most people don’t think too much of the early stages of ebola. But then comes the weakness, rashes, vomiting and diarrhoea. If not treated, patients begin internal and external haemorrhaging, and their organs shut down. The fatality rate can be as high as 90 per cent.

RICHARD BROOME: People are very, very scared, quite rightly so, they’re very scared of ebola, and there has been the perception that, if you get ebola, you’re in a hopeless situation, and that is one of the other reasons that people have not wanted to come forward.

The Rest…HERE

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