NEW YORK, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - A West African Ebola outbreak is “out of control,” and the affected countries are struggling to contain the disease, Jason Cone, spokesman for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid group, told RIA Novosti.
“The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is out of control, and the current response is insufficient compared to the needs. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, there are critical gaps in all aspects of the response. MSF does not have a clear overview of the most affected areas and it is believed that people are still dying in their villages without access to medical care,” Cone said.
“The epidemic further strains weak health systems already trying to cope with malaria and maternal mortality. Many health facilities are closed or empty, as people are not seeking care for regular illnesses for fear of being infected. Some health workers have been infected or have died. Many are too scared to come to work,” he said.
More than 1,300 people have been infected and 729 killed in the worst Ebola outbreak in history and is the first to have occurred in West Africa. The infection started in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) is spending $100 million on bringing more doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and logisticians to the region to stop the hemorrhagic fever from spreading – both inside the three stricken countries and across international borders.
