More than $1bn (£618m) is needed to fight the West Africa Ebola outbreak, a tenfold increase in the past month, the BBC quoted the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator, David Nabarro, said in an announcement.
Nabarro made the announcement as the World Health Organisation described the health crisis as “unparalleled in modern times”.
Ebola has killed 2,461 people this year, half of the 4,985 infected by the virus, the global health body said.
There has been criticism of the slow international response to the epidemic.
“Highly infectious people are forced to return home, only to infect others and continue the spread of this deadly virus,” Joanne Liu MSF president says.
Later, the US president is to announce plans to send 3,000 troops to Liberia, one of countries worst-affected by the outbreak, to help fight the virus.
It is understood the US military will oversee building new treatment centres and help train medical staff.
Medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, , called on other countries to follow the US lead as the response to outbreak continued to fall “dangerously behind”.
The outbreak began in Guinea before spreading to its neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Nigeria and Senegal have reported some cases, but seem to have contained the transmission of the virus.
Infected ‘turned away’
“We requested about $100m a month ago and now it is $1bn, so our task has gone up 10 times in a month,” Mr Nabarro told a briefing in Geneva.
“Because of the way the outbreak is advancing, the level of surge we need to do is unprecedented, it is massive.”
More than half the deaths from the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak have been in Liberia.
At the briefing WHO deputy head Bruce Aylward announced the new Ebola case figures.
“Quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, this health crisis we’re facing is unparalleled in modern times. We don’t know where the numbers are going on this,” he said.
When the WHO had said it needed the capacity to manage 20,000 cases two weeks ago “that seemed like a lot”, Dr Aylward said.
“That does not seem like a lot today,” he added.
At the same briefing, MSF president Joanne Liu said there needed to be “co-ordinated response, organised and executed under clear chain of command”.
Sick people in the Liberian capital were banging on the doors of MSF Ebola care centres desperate for a safe place in which to be isolated, she said.
Comments
Post a Comment