Ebola Still Active But Huge Distinction Remains

 

While Ebola treatment and containment efforts are gradually gaining pace in Sierra Leone and Liberia, there are still far too few health workers, contact tracers and community monitors on the ground to keep up with the disease's spread, particularly in urban areas, say Health Ministry staff and aid workers.

"It's hard for us to cut transmission rates," Liberia's Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyensuah told IRIN. "Most of the hospitals in Monrovia are still not fully operational. More community surveillance is needed. We don't have it right yet."

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency coordinator in Liberia, Lindis Hurum, described the situation in Monrovia, as "catastrophic" with reports of at least 40 health workers infected, most of the city's hospitals closed and reports of dead bodies lying in streets and houses.

Monrovia is densely populated, with poor water and sanitation conditions. This urban challenge is "completely unprecedented", said Nyensuah. "Even for MSF [which has been managing Ebola cases in Lofa County on the Guinea border] it's the first time they are dealing with it [Ebola] in urban and semi-urban areas. This requires new approaches, new protocols on how to save lives."

Between 7 and 9 August a further 45 new Ebola cases were reported in Liberia, bringing the total to 599. Sierra Leone has borne the brunt of cases with 730, while Guinea has 506 cases. Out of a total of 1,848 cases, some 1,013 people have died according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The health infrastructure in Sierra Leone and Liberia is among the world's weakest, with inadequate equipment, crumbling facilities and far too few doctors: some 250 to cover Liberia's entire population, according to Stephen Kennedy at the Liberia Post-Graduate Medical College, while Sierra Leone has one doctor for every 33,000 citizens, according to one WHO estimate.

In the last month at least 60 health workers in Sierra Leone and Liberia have died, according to reports.