UN: Nearly $1 billion needed now to stop Ebola; cases could double every 3 weeks
By JOHN HEILPRIN and KRISTA LARSON
USNews.com
Sept. 16, 2014
GENEVA (AP) — The number of Ebola cases in West Africa could start doubling every three weeks and it could end up costing nearly $1 billion to contain the crisis, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.
Even as President Barack Obama was expected to announce the deployment of 3,000 American troops to help provide aid in the region, Doctors Without Borders told the U.N. health agency that the global response to Ebola was falling far short of what is needed.
“The response to Ebola continues to fall dangerously behind,” Joanne Liu, president of the medical charity, told a meeting at the United Nations in Geneva. “The window of opportunity to contain this outbreak is closing. We need more countries to stand up, we need greater deployment, and we need it now.”
In a report released Tuesday, WHO said some $987.8 million is needed for everything from paying health workers and buying supplies to tracing people who have been exposed to the virus, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids like blood, urine or diarrhea. Some $23.8 million alone is needed to pay burial teams and buy body bags, since the bodies of Ebola victims are highly infectious and workers must wear protection suits.
Nearly 5,000 people have been sickened by Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal since it was first recognized in March. WHO says it anticipates that figure could rise to more than 20,000. At least 2,400 people have died, with Liberia bearing the brunt of the fatalities.
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