‘Underestimated’ Ebola outbreak spreads
Natalie DiBlasio
USA TODAY
August 23, 2014
Ebola continues to spread in West Africa as Sierra Leone voted to pass a new amendment imposing jail time for anyone caught hiding an Ebola patient.
The outbreak continues to spread, with 142 new cases recorded, bringing the total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday. The group added that the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak has been “underestimated.”
“Many families hide infected loved ones in their homes,” the organization wrote in an assessment. “Others deny that a patient has Ebola and believe that care in an isolation ward – viewed as an incubator of the disease – will lead to infection and certain death. Most fear the stigma and social rejection that come to patients and families when a diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed.”
Most of the new cases are in Liberia. So far that country has record 1,082 cases and 624 deaths. New treatment centers are overwhelmed by patients that were not previously identified.
One center with 20 beds opened its doors to 70 possibly infected people, likely coming from “shadow-zones” where people fearing authorities won’t let doctors enter, the U.N health agency said.
“This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system,” the agency said. This has “never before been seen in an Ebola outbreak.”
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