The U.N. body has been assessing the situation in Liberia,
and outlines a desperate situation there and in other countries with a high
rate of disease transmission in a statement released on Monday.
“As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it
immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but
previously invisible caseload,” the WHO stated. “Many thousands of new cases
are expected in Liberia over the coming three weeks.”
About 4,000 people have been confirmed infected with Ebola
since the outbreak started in March, and around half of these have died. Guinea
and Sierra Leone have been hard hit, but Liberia has recorded the highest
cumulative number of reported cases and deaths. The transmission rate there
remains perilous and in Montserrado county, which includes the capital
Monrovia, “only half of the urgent and immediate capacity needs could be met
within the next few weeks and months.”
The massive pressure on health facilities is aggravating the
risk for further contagion. Sick people and their relatives are shuttling
through the city in taxis, searching in vain for available hospital beds. Since
Ebola is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood and sweat, the lack of
disinfection of these vehicles have turned them into a “hot source” for
spreading the disease, according to the WHO.
At an emergency African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on
Monday, officials said that measures to curb the outbreak such as border closures,
flight bans and extensive quarantines had created a sense of siege in the
worst-hit West African countries. Public health officials have previously
deemed the closure of porous borders ineffective, and it has been pointed out
that bans on transportation — most notably flights to and from the continental
airport hubs in Nairobi and Johannesburg — are not only taking a severe
economic toll on these stricken nations, but making aid deliveries more
difficult.
African Union Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said
thorough border checks for people displaying Ebola-like symptoms should replace
blanket bans on people arriving from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, but that
the decision should be made by the individual countries themselves, the Wall
Street Journal reports.
“We are not working on schedules, whether you will lift [the
ban] tomorrow or this evening. We are working on principle decisions, which we
expect our member states to implement,” Dlamini-Zuma said. “The decision was
that it must be urgently done.”
Senegal officials announced at the meeting that they would
allow humanitarian aid to pass through its closed borders.
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