Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring the largest-recorded Ebola epidemic a “health emergency,” the international effort to stem the outbreak is dangerously inadequate.
Deaths and infections are increasing dramatically in Liberia and Sierra Leone, precipitating a public health crisis.
Meanwhile, the outbreak is continuing in Guinea, where it originated in March, with new suspected cases admitted to medical facilities.
Ebola deaths
Ebola has claimed 1,069 lives since the outbreak began, with 1,975 cases reported, according to the WHO.
The WHO and governments must provide immediate support to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. An immediate and massive international mobilisation of medical resources – human and technical – to Liberia and Sierra Leone is needed.
It is clear that the Ebola epidemic will not be contained without a massive deployment of medical and disaster relief specialists.
The governments of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are doing everything they can but they desperately need international support. Their doctors and nurses having been dying and risking their lives on the front line of this outbreak.
Disaster experts needed
Providing funds is not enough. Available infectious disease experts and disaster relief specialists from countries with these capacities must deploy teams to the affected countries.
In addition to a larger deployment of medical and epidemiological specialists, the emergency response immediately needs:
- Additional laboratory capacity for Ebola testing
- Ambulances and helicopters to safely transport samples and suspected cases
- Supplies to ensure safe burials
International non-governmental organisations must also step up their efforts in region.
Humanitarian agencies reaching limits
Emergency teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are continuing all efforts to fight the Ebola epidemic.
Tackling the outbreak since March, we currently have 692 staff in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia treating a rapidly increasing number of patients.
Our top priority is infected patients and we have already deployed all our experienced staff.
Medical emergency
The countries most affected are trying to rebuild after years of civil war; they already struggle to meet the basic health needs of their people, let alone deal with an emergency of this complexity and magnitude.
Sierra Leone and Liberia have just 0.2 and 0.1 doctors per 10,000 people respectively (compared to the average 2.6 in West Africa and 240 times that number in the United States).
In Liberia and Sierra Leone, many health facilities are closed or empty. People are not seeking care for regular illnesses for fear of being infected with Ebola.
Some health workers have been infected or have died. Many are therefore too afraid to come to work. The epidemic is further straining weak health systems already trying to cope with existing health crises like malaria and maternal mortality.
Strain on the health system
The WHO needs to coordinate and push for extra support to general health workers so hospitals and health centres can remain open to treat the usual high disease burden in these countries.
If the health system starts to shut down in these countries mortality levels from other diseases and conditions may rise astronomically and will become a terrible indirect effect of this Ebola epidemic.
Ebola deaths
Many of the patients who have died are between 30 and 45 years old.
There are villages in Kailahun in Sierra Leone, for example, which have lost the majority of the adult members of the community, leaving many orphaned children and elderly people.
In some villages there is hardly anybody left to cultivate the fields or provide for the families.
Liberia
In Liberia’s capital Monrovia, the situation is catastrophic and is deteriorating on a daily basis.
At one point last week, all five of the main hospitals in Monrovia were closed. Some have since reopened but are barely functioning.
There has been no improvement in the coordination of the response. Hospitals and almost all health centres in the city of one million remain closed.
The number of dead is outstripping the capacity for health officials to manage their safe burial, and more and more health workers have been infected with Ebola over recent weeks.
There is a dire need for the WHO, countries, and other international organisations to mobilise to support the Liberian Ministry of Health.
Ebola outbreak
“The scale of this outbreak is getting bigger every day,” said Lindis Hurum, MSF emergency coordinator in Liberia.
“The Liberian health system just cannot cope with the scale of the epidemic. The outbreak has affected every facet of the Liberian society. This disease is very democratic in that sense.”
Medical care
MSF teams have completed the a new 120-bed case management centre in Monrovia called ELWA3, which will receive its first patients by this weekend.
It one of the largest Ebola treatment centre ever built by the organisation. The team also continues to provide technical support and training to the Ministry of Health.
“We have exhausted our available pool of experienced medical staff and cannot scale up our response any further,” said Hurum.
“We desperately need WHO, countries, and other aid agencies to deploy staff to the field. We are Doctors Without Borders but not without limits.”
Ebola patients
MSF has recently launched a response in Liberia’s Lofa region, alongside the Guinean border, which has been badly affected by Ebola.
In Foya, a team has rehabilitated the isolation centre with 40 beds in line with MSF standards for the management of the disease.
After two weeks of intervention the team currently has 137 suspected Ebola patients in its care.
Sierra Leone
Our Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun with 80 beds, near the border with Guinea, between five and 10 new patients are being admitted each day. Currently there are 50 patients in the centre.
We are building an isolation centre in Bo town with 35-bed capacity. near the village of Gondama,
We also run a transit capacity centre where suspected cases are isolated and then transferred for further care.
Ebola information
Meanwhile, almost 300 community health workers are running health promotion activities in the region to increase people’s knowledge about Ebola and infection prevention measures.
Our team still hears of many dead in the communities, and of new communities being infected, although there are no concrete numbers available.
We continue to prioritise this activity, and are increasing the number of health promotion staff.
In total, MSF treatment centres in Sierra Leone have admitted 294 patients, of whom 191 were confirmed to have Ebola. 47 patients have recovered and returned home.
Guinea
In Guinea, MSF is running two Ebola treatment centres – one in the capital, Conakry, and one in Guéckédou, in the southwest of the country, where the outbreak began.
Currently, there are four patients in our treatment centre in Conakry and 11 in Guéckédou.
Treatment centre
The situation in Conakry remains fairly stable. In and around Guéckédou, the number of patients in the treatment centre is still low, however the teams continue to identify new hot spots and we are prepared to see more people coming from other communities.
In Macenta transit centre in southwest Guinea near the Liberian border, our teams supported the Ministry of Health by transferring Ebola patients for treatment in either Conakry or Guékédou.
We have handed it over completely to the ministry of health and the WHO. Patients are arriving from a wide area, including the region around Nzerekore.
Ebola patients
Since March, MSF treatment centres in Guékédou have admitted 366 patients, of whom 169 were confirmed to have Ebola. Forty-seven patients have recovered and returned home.
Read more about MSF's Ebola response
