Ebola advances in West Africa
FoxNews.com
October 10, 2014
Ebola continues its relentless expansion through West Africa, the region where the pandemic first emerged, despite the resources deployed by other countries and new health protocols aimed at preventing the virus from spreading.
In Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two worst-affected countries, Ebola has taken root in the respective capitals, Monrovia and Freetown, despite national and international efforts to stop the contagion.
With more than 2,200 dead and nearly 4,000 cases, Liberia has already become the global epicenter of Ebola, where the virus has only just begun to spread among health workers, according to authorities.
Sierra Leone, where around 880 people have died, saw a steep rise in the number of cases after a three-day round-the-clock curfew. Last week it registered a tragic peak in the number of deaths recorded on a single day, with 121.
Both countries this week received British and American military aid to try to contain the spread of Ebola, which has already claimed more than 4,000 lives and may still not have revealed the true dimensions of the crisis.
In Guinea, the chaos unleashed by Ebola “permeates every aspect of people’s lives,” warned the Director of Policy at the United Nations Development Program, Spaniard Magdy Martinez-Soliman.
Guinea’s economy had begun to grow after prolonged political instability, but the trend turned negative again with the spread of the virus.
Doctors Without Borders warned that their shelters in Guinea Conakry may not be able to receive more patients as a result of a sudden increase in cases in recent days.
Another Spaniard, Dr. Jose Maria Echevarria, who struggles every day against Ebola in Sierra Leone, told Efe that although the epidemic is “totally out of control,” he believes the only way to halt its spread is by sticking to the protocols
“We must put everything into place, things will work if they are done right,” he explained in a telephone interview.
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