The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a statement saying that the problems related to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia are becoming more urgent.
Here is the full statement:
Situation in Liberia: unconventional necessary interventions
September 8, 2014
in the past weeks, a WHO emergency team of experts worked with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and members of her government to assess the situation in Liberia Ebola.
transmission of Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially.
investigation team worked alongside the staff of the Ministry of Health, local health authorities, and other key partners working in the country.
All agreed that the Ebola epidemic requirements have completely outgrown government, AOS and partners, AO to meet. Fourteen of Liberia, aos 15 counties have reported confirmed cases.
Some 152 health workers were infected and 79 died. When the epidemic began, Liberia had one doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people out of a population of 4.4 million people. Each infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes significantly response capacity.
Liberia, in collaboration with other affected countries, namely Guinea and Sierra Leone, is experiencing a phenomenon never seen in any previous Ebola epidemic. Once a new Ebola treatment facility is open, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, showing a large but hitherto invisible workload.
Of all the Ebola affected countries, Liberia has the highest cumulative number of reported cases and deaths, amounting, on 8 September, almost two thousand cases and more than a thousand dead . The case fatality rate, 58%, is also among the highest.
Situation in Montserrado County
The WHO survey concentrated on Montserrado County, which includes Liberia, AOS capital, Monrovia. The county is home to more than a million people. The teeming slum of West Point, which has no sanitation, no running water and virtually no electrical equipment is located in Monrovia, and is adjacent to the city, AOS main market district.
In Montserrado County the team estimated that 1,000 beds are urgently needed for the treatment of patients infected with Ebola now. At present only 240 beds are available, with an additional 260 beds planned or being implemented. These estimates indicate that only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met in the coming weeks and months.
The number of new cases is moving much faster than the ability to manage in the treatment of specific Ebola centers.
for example, an Ebola treatment facility, improvised by WHO for the Ministry of Health, has recently been set up to handle 30 patients, but were more than 70 patients since it opened .
The WHO estimates that 0 to 250 medical staff are required to handle Ebola treatment plant safely with 70 beds.
The investigation team saw conditions in general purpose health facilities and transit and specific Ebola treatment.
The John F Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia, which was largely destroyed during Liberia, AOS civil war, remains the country, AOS as academic referral hospital. The hospital is plagued by fires and electrical floods, and several medical staff there were infected and died, exhausting the hospital, AOS limited further effective.
The fact that the first symptoms of Ebola virus disease mimic those of many other common infectious diseases increases the likelihood that the Ebola patients will be treated in the same room as patients with other infections, if putting and medical staff as well at very high risk of exposure.
In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, some of whom are thought to be infected with Ebola, crisscross the city, looking for a treatment bed. There are not any. As WHO staff in Liberia confirmed, no free beds for Ebola treatment exist throughout the country.
According to a member of the WHO staff who were in Liberia for several weeks, motorcycle taxis and regular taxis are a hot source of the potential for transmission of Ebola that these vehicles are not disinfected all, much less before new passengers are taken on board.
When patients are discharged in Ebola treatment centers, they have no other choice but to return to their communities and homes, as they inevitably infect other, perpetuating constantly pushed higher in the number of cases.
other urgent needs include finding shelters for orphans and help patients who were rejected by their families or neighbors recovered.
last week, WHO has sent one of its most experienced emergency managers at the head of the WHO office in Monrovia. The coordination between the key partners is improving rapidly, in order to better match resources and rapidly escalating needs.
survey Implications
The survey in Liberia gives three important conclusions that need to shape the Ebola response in countries with intense transmission.
First, Ebola control conventional interventions are not enough impact in Liberia, even if they seem to work elsewhere in areas of limited transmission, especially in Nigeria, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Second, much community involvement is the cornerstone of a more effective response. When communities support, especially in rural areas, and develop their own solutions and protective measures, the Ebola transmission slowed considerably.
Third, the main development partners supporting the response in Liberia and elsewhere should be prepared to step up their current efforts in three to four times.
As WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan told agencies and officials last week in New York and Washington, DC, the development partners must prepare for, Äúexponential Increase, Au in Ebola case in countries experiencing intense virus transmission.
Several thousand new cases are expected in Liberia over the next three weeks.
WHO and its Director General to continue to advocate for more treatment beds Ebola in Liberia and elsewhere, and held the world has to respond to this absolutely urgent with its unprecedented dimensions of human suffering
* Ebola files :. given the current Ebola outbreak unprecedented in terms of the number of people killed and the rapid geographic spread, science and Science Translational Medicine have a collection of items research and news on the viral disease available for researchers and the general public.
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