World losing Ebola battle due to leaders’ inaction— MSF
UNITED NATIONS SAYS SEVERE FOOD SHORTAGES LOOMING IN THE HARDEST- HIT COUNTRIES
International medical agency Medecins Sans Frontieres ( MSF) said yesterday the world was “losing the battle” to contain Ebola as the United Nations warned of severe food shortages in the hardest- hit countries.
MSF told a UN briefing in New York that world leaders were failing to address the epidemic and called for an urgent global biological disaster response to get aid and personnel to West Africa.
“Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat,” said MSF international president Joanne Liu.
“The [ World Health Organisation] announcement on August 8 that the epidemic constituted a ‘ public health emergency of international concern’ has not led to decisive action, and states have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction.”
Her comments came as a third American health worker tested positive for the deadly virus while working with patients in Liberia, the worst- hit country.
“My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learnt another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola,” said Bruce Johnson, president of the SIM Christian missionary group for whom the unnamed American worked. Two fellow US health workers who worked at the same ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia were previously flown home and successfully treated for the virus.
Meanwhile, a British nurse infected with Ebola while working in Sierra Leone was discharged from a London hospital yesterday after recovering from the disease following treatment with the experimental drug ZMapp.
“Iwas very lucky,” said William Pooley, who had been working as a volunteer in one of the worst hit areas and was flown out of Africa on a specially-equipped British military plane.
“I had some unpleasant symptoms but nothing compared to some of the worst of the disease, especially when people end up dying,” said Pooley, who has been the only Briton reportedly infected.
Liu called for the international community to fund more beds for a regional network of field hospitals, dispatch trained personnel and deploy mobile laboratories across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
MSF said in a statement accompanying the briefing that the crisis was particularly acute in Monrovia, where it is estimated that “800 additional beds are needed”.