Better-trained medical workers are needed in West Africa to stop the growing outbreak of Ebola, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday..
The head of the organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, said at a news conference in Geneva, that the death toll from the outbreak has climbed past 2,400, with the total number of cases rising to 4,784.
According to her, officials trying to contain Ebola are short of almost everything, including protective gear, mobile laboratories and body bags, but that the biggest obstacle is a lack of trained health care workers.
She said, “Money, materials are important but those alone could not stop the Ebola transmission… Human resources is most important, and especially the needs for compassionate doctors and nurses who will know how to comfort patients despite the barriers of wearing, you know, PPG suits and working in very demanding conditions.”
A report by Voice of America (VOA) cites WHOas saying this s week that Ebola has killed nearly 80 health care workers in Liberia, the country hardest hit by the disease.
Chan said more than 1,000 health care workers are needed at regional Ebola treatment centers. She welcomed a pledge by Cuba on Friday to send 165 health professionals to West Africa. The workers are scheduled to go to Sierra Leone in early October and stay for six months.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has also sent staff to help fight the outbreak, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is seeking qualified medical professionals to go to the region. Volunteers can submit applications at the agency’s website, www.usaid.gov.
U.N. officials including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have warned that a stronger response is needed to contain Ebola, a vicious disease that causes vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding eyes, ears and other body openings.
According to the VOA report, U.S. government contributions toward fighting the outbreak have topped $100 million, while the private Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this week pledged $50 million to purchase supplies and speed up development of potential therapies.
Liberia has become the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for about half of all cases and deaths. The WHO said this week that “intense transmission” also continues in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
S. African Woman tests negative
Meanwhile in Nigeria, a South African woman who was quarantined overnight as a suspected Ebola case has tested negative for the disease and will be allowed to return home, a U.S. disease expert assisting Nigerian health authorities said on Friday.
The traveler, who had flown in to Lagos via Morocco on Thursday, was held overnight in an Ebola treatment center for tests after she acknowledged suffering Ebola-like symptoms after working in Guinea and Sierra Leone since April.
The two countries, along with Liberia, are the worst affected by the largest outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic virus to date.
The epidemic has also reached Nigeria and Senegal because of sick travelers “importing” the disease, prompting governments across Africa and the world to intensify health screening. Democratic Republic of Congo has a separate outbreak.
Dr. Aileen Marty, professor of infectious diseases at Florida International University College of Medicine, told Reuters the South African patient was treated for amoebic dysentery, which produced the symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting she had displayed on her arrival at Lagos airport.
“She is negative [for Ebola],” said Marty, who is in Lagos assisting Nigeria with its Ebola screening under WHO auspices.
The traveler, whose identity was not given, would be allowed to return to South Africa on the first available flight, she said.
The Ebola test was carried out by Nigerian medics and Dr. Cesar Munoz-Fontela of the Hamburg-based Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, which has set up testing labs both in Lagos and in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
Ebola screening
Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria has instituted Ebola screening, including infra-red temperature scans and symptoms checks, at its airports and ports after a Liberian-American infected with the disease brought it to Lagos in July after flying from Liberia. His is one of seven deaths recorded so far out of 19 confirmed cases in Nigeria.
Ebola screening will also be carried out on thousands of Nigerian pilgrims leaving in coming days for the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has barred pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea but is allowing Nigerians.
