‘We’re all in Trouble’ If Ebola Outbreak in Africa Goes Unchecked
By Erin McClam
NBCNews.com
October 29th 2014
Health officials keep saying that the smartest way to keep Americans safe from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its epicenter in West Africa. And in West Africa, the virus is still raging.
The number of cases in the three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, just sped past 10,000. The number of deaths will almost certainly pass 5,000 the next time world health officials update their count.
Senegal and Nigeria have been declared Ebola-free, but Mali reported its first case last week. And in an alarming twist, a U.N. official says the data in West Africa is so bad that authorities don’t know how fast the virus is spreading or where the worst spots are for new cases.
While the news at home is good — with the release of a Dallas nurse on Tuesday, only one Ebola patient is hospitalized in the United States — leaders in the hot zone stress that the world must not slow its response there.
“Together, we can make sure that the world is safe,” Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whose country has been hardest-hit, told NBC News. “Because if not, and this disease spreads, then we’re all in trouble.”
She said it was an “overreaction” for some U.S. states to order mandatory quarantines for health care workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries. Health officials in the United States have said those quarantines could discourage health workers from going to help.
“We understand the fears,” Sirleaf said. “There’s fear even in our own society. But we think that fear can be overcome with the right messaging from leaders.”
Sirleaf stressed progress in her country, including the building of 17 special Ebola treatment units and the outfitting of 600 community care centers to handle contacts of Ebola patients who show up sick.
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