EbolaEbola outbreak has “completely outstripped the Liberian government’s capacity to respond”: WHO

Quarantined villagers waiting for Liberian government to deliver food // Source: docbao.vn

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a statement Monday saying problems related to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia are increasingly dire.

Here is WHO’s full statement:

Situation in Liberia: non-conventional interventions needed
During the past weeks, a WHO team of emergency experts worked together with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and members of her government to assess the Ebola situation in Liberia. Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially. The investigative team worked alongside staff from the Ministry of Health, local health officials, and other key partners working in the country. All agreed that the demands of the Ebola outbreak have completely outstripped the government’s and partners’ capacity to respond. Fourteen of Liberia’s fifteen counties have now reported confirmed cases.

Some 152 health care workers have been infected and seventy-nine have died. When the outbreak began, Liberia had only one doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people in a total population of 4.4 million people. Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly.

Liberia, together with the other hard-hit countries, namely Guinea and Sierra Leone, is experiencing a phenomenon never before seen in any previous Ebola outbreak. As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload.

Of all Ebola-affected countries, Liberia has the highest cumulative number of reported cases and deaths, amounting, on 8 September, to nearly two thousand cases and more than one thousand deaths. The case-fatality rate, at 58 percent, is also among the highest.

Situation in Montserrado county
The WHO investigation concentrated on Montserrado county, which includes Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. The county is home to more than one million people. The teeming West Point slum, which has no sanitation, little running water, and virtually no electrical supplies, is also located in Monrovia, and is adjacent to the city’s major market district.

In Montserrado county, the team estimated that 1,000 beds are urgently needed for the treatment of currently infected Ebola patients. At present only 240 beds are available, with an additional 260 beds either planned or in the process of being put in place. These estimates mean that only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met within the next few weeks and months.