Ebola officials in Liberia, Sierra Leone describe successes amid looming danger

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE — Liberia is making some progress in containing the Ebola outbreak while the crisis in Sierra Leone is going to get worse, the top anti-Ebola officials in the two countries said.

The people of both countries must redouble efforts to stop the disease, which has infected more than 13,000 people and killed nearly 5,000, the officials said. Their assessments underscore that Ebola remains a constant threat until the outbreak is wiped out.

It can appear to be on the wane, only to re-emerge in the same place or balloon elsewhere if people don’t avoid touching Ebola patients or the bodies of those who succumb to the disease.

“We are in a crisis situation which is going to get worse,” Palo Conteh said late Wednesday in the Sierra Leone capital, in his first press conference as head of the National Ebola Response Center. “What is happening now should have been done three months ago.”

“Today we have a new and vicious enemy, an enemy that does not wear uniform, that ... attacks anyone that comes into contact with (it) and if unchecked will ravage our beautiful land and its fine people,” he said.

The stark warning and call to action was echoed by others, even in neighbouring Liberia, where the World Health Organization has said the rate of infection appears to be slowing, perhaps by as much by 25 per cent week over week.

“We need to re-galvanize our efforts, accelerate the interventions, remain vigilant,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, the assistant minister of health who leads the Liberian government’s Ebola response.