As the number of new cases of Ebola in Liberia falls, the international community needs to change the way it responds to the crisis, a prominent aid group says.
As the number of new cases of Ebola in Liberia falls, the international community needs to change the way it responds to the crisis, a prominent aid group says.
Although Ebola cases are rising in Sierra Leone, they have been falling in Liberia for several weeks, according to the World Health Organization. More than 13,000 people have been infected with Ebola in the three countries and 4,960 have died.
A 250-bed Ebola case management center in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, is now treating only 50 patients, according to Doctors Witihout Borders. There are now no cases in the district of Foya, in northern Liberia, and the last confirmed case there was Oct. 30.
'In Liberia, the international response is finally getting off the ground,' said Fasil Tezera, Doctors Without Borders' head of operations in Liberia, in a statement. 'Financial support is starting to flow into the country and huge resources are being put into constructing large-scale Ebola isolation centers. Isolation units in Monrovia and some other parts of the country now have adequate capacity.'
WHO officials have cautioned that Ebola cases appeared to fall early in the outbreak, only to come roaring back.
Some public health experts said it's too soon to know if the apparent drop in cases is due to actual progress against Ebola.
An American Ebola clinic outside Monrovia, Liberia.(Photo: U.S. Public Health Service Commi, U.S. Public Health Service Commi)
'It's still unclear that the turnaround is real,' said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine in Houston. 'We had a couple of weeks of empty beds, but could this be a temporary situation.'
Some families have deliberately kept their loved ones away from the hospital, for example, in order to bury them according to traditional customs, rather than cremate them, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Cremation is considered a safer way to dispose of bodies infected with Ebola.
Osterholm said Ebola cases are likely to fluctuate from week to week. He said that longer-term patterns, such as new cases over the past month, can provide a more accurate measure of the Ebola.
And while cases have fallen in Monrovia, Ebola has flared in small towns such as Jene-Wonde, near the border with Sierra Leone. The town of 300 has lost 10% of its residents to Ebola, the Associated Press reports.
The international response needs to take a 'flexible approach that allows a rapid response to new outbreaks,' wherever they flare up, Tezera said. These teams needs to be well-equipped, so they can quickly investigate any potential cases, isolate patients, trace their contacts, organize safe burials, disinfect contaminated area and educate communities.
This approach has helped reduce cases in Foya, said Nico Heijenberg, Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator, in a statement. 'Trust and understanding by the community is hugely important in acceptance of medical activities and in successfully containing the virus.'
The international community also needs to help restart the regular health care system in Liberia, which has collapsed, the group says. Patients with malaria now have way to get treatment. To help, Doctors Without Borders has been giving out preventive medications to prevent malaria.
Mothers wait inline for their children to be vaccinated by heath workers at the Pipeline Community Health Center, situated on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. The Ebola outbreak has spawned hidden cases of malaria, pneumonia, typhoid and other diseases now going without treatment.(Photo: Abbas Dulleh, AP)
Many hospitals and clinics are closed. Open facilities turn away feverish or vomiting patients for fear they could have Ebola, according to Doctors Without Borders.
Government agencies in West Africa have been so stressed by the Ebola outbreak that workers responsible for burying the dead or treating the sick sometimes wait weeks to be paid. Burial teams in Sierra Leone went on strike over the issue last month, leaving dead bodies on the streeets.
The World Bank, which has committed $500 million to fighting Ebola in West Africa, is now providing hazard pay and death benefits to Ebola health workers and volunteers.
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