Ebola transit units boost response; outbreak total hits 17,800…(You Can Probably Triple That!)
Lisa Schnirring
CIDRAP News
Dec 08, 2014
Doctors without Borders (MSF) continues to tailor its response to the evolving Ebola situation in Liberia, opening a small isolation unit in Monrovia to help one of the city’s major hospitals reopen and setting up another in a remote community where the burial of a patient from the capital sparked an outbreak.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today that the number of people infected by Ebola in the hardest hit countries has grown to 17,800, with the number of deaths rising to 6,331.
With today’s report, Sierra Leone appears to have pulled ahead of Liberia as the country with the most cases. Liberia’s data, however, are current as of Dec 3, while the Guinea and Liberia numbers are current as of Dec 6.
Today’s report lists Sierra Leone’s case total as 7,798, Liberia’s as 7,719, and Guinea’s as 2,283. Liberia still overwhelming leads with the highest number of deaths, 3,177. The WHO has warned that the case totals underestimate the true burden of the disease.
New transit units provide quick isolation
MSF said in a Dec 5 statement that it set up its new 10-bed Ebola transit unit in Monrovia near Redemption Hospital, near the crowded slum community of New Kru Town. It said the facility was closed for regular service in August, a blow to the community, because it is the only hospital in the area that offers free medical care.
The group said the transit facility will enable suspected Ebola patients who come to the hospital’s reopened outpatient department to be quickly isolated, diagnosed, and referred to an Ebola treatment center, which provides the hospital with some breathing room to reopen safely to treat other conditions.
The Rest…HERE
