Ebola is spreading at the rate of five new cases an
hour in Sierra Leone, according to figures
released as world leaders and experts on disease
control gathered in London to discuss the
outbreak.
The figures from Save the Children showed there
were 765 new cases last week in the west African
country alone, but only 327 hospital beds to treat
infected patients. The charity said the “terrifying”
rate of the spread of the disease was outstripping
medical supplies and threatened a breakdown of
Sierra Leone’s already fragile health system.
The rate of spread of the deadly virus is projected
to double to 10 people an hour in the country
before the end of October, Save the Children said.
The UN said the spread of the disease in
neighbouring Liberia was just as alarming and
called for a massive international response to
prevent the outbreak wreaking havoc in west
Africa and beyond. Speaking from Liberia,
Anthony Banbury, the head of a new UN Mission
for Ebola Emergency Response, said: “It is fairly
similar in Liberia. The disease is spreading very
rapidly – cases doubling every 20 days.”
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme,
Banbury said: “The disease has reached every
county of Liberia. It is clear that the international
community has to have a rapid and very strong
response to get this disease under control before
it wreaks much more massive havoc in these
countries and possibly other ones.”
The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola
outside of Africa told medical staff in the US that
he had recently travelled to Liberia
.
Banbury added: “We now need a very massive
international response, that combines health
interventions, big logistics as well as mass
community mobilisation – getting information out
to very remote villages, explaining to them how to
protect themselves against the disease and what
to do if someone falls sick.”
Save the Children’s chief executive, Justin Forsyth,
said: “The scale of the Ebola epidemic is
devastating and growing every day, with five
people infected every hour in Sierra Leone last
week. We need a coordinated international
response that ensures treatment centres are built
and staffed immediately.
“This is not only an immediate humanitarian
threat, but risks completely undoing the hard
work which has been done to build up fragile
health systems in Sierra Leone and Liberia after
the devastating wars of the past few decades. ”
Britain hosted a conference to discuss the
international response to the outbreak
on Thursday morning.
The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond,
and development secretary, Justine Greening,
were joined by representatives of five African
countries and ten other nations including the USA
and Cuba, which is sending 300 doctors and
nurses, at Lancaster House. UN organisations,
charities, the British actor Idris Elba and William
Pooley, the British nurse who recently recovered
from Ebola, were also present.
Hammond said during a break that Ebola was “a
terrible scourge”. The conference “was designed
to galvanise the international community into
greater action to tackle the disease in Sierra
Leone... The UK is leading and co-ordinating
responses but we need international help. Today
we have made significant progress towards
securing it.” Sustainable action was needed for at
least the next three or four months, he said.
He paid tribute to the courage and sacrifice of
Pooley, who told the conference of his
experiences treating those with the disease in
Sierra Leone. Pooley was in the US earlier in the
week giving his blood, which now contains
antibodies against Ebola, to help vaccine
researchers in their work, said Hammond, and is
now helping to train health workers heading to
west Africa. He is “acting as an ambassador for
the crusade against Ebola”.
Greening rejected criticism from MPs on the
international development committee who said in
a report that cuts in bilateral aid to the region had
undermined health services and contributed to
the spread of Ebola. The UK gave £51m in 2010
and £68m in 2012, she said, as well as
contributing to the Global Fund and GAVI, which
channel money into drugs and vaccines. The
committee said the crisis “demonstrates the
dangers of ignoring the least developed countries
in the world”.
The UK has now invested £125m in the fight
against Ebola, including the promise of 700
additional beds, in hospital units being
constructed under the supervision of the military,
and 400 NHS staff have so far volunteered to go
out to help staff them and train local people.