Reply to Ebola: will it adapt to become more easily transmissible?

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[quote=Anonymous]http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news-stories/field-news/response-west-africa-ebola-epidemic-remains-dangerously-inadequate

August 15, 2014

[quote]Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration that the largest-recorded Ebola hemorrhagic fever epidemic is an “international health emergency,” the global effort to stem the outbreak is dangerously inadequate.

The number of deaths and cases is continuing to increase dramatically in Liberia and Sierra Leone, precipitating a public health crisis in the two West African countries.  Meanwhile, the outbreak is continuing to affect people in Guinea, where it originated in March, with new suspected cases continuing to be admitted to medical facilities.
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[quote]The WHO and states must provide immediate support to the governments of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. An immediate and massive international mobilization of medical resources—human and technical—to Liberia and Sierra Leone is required to assist these countries.

It is clear that the Ebola epidemic will not be contained without a massive deployment of medical and disaster relief specialists. The governments of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone are doing everything they can to try to fight this epidemic. Their doctors and nurses have been dying and risking their lives on the front line of this outbreak. They desperately need international support.

Providing funds is not enough. Available infectious disease experts and disaster relief specialists from countries with these capacities must deploy teams to the affected countries. In addition to a larger deployment of medical and epidemiological specialists, additional laboratory capacity for Ebola testing is required, along with ambulances and helicopters to safely transport samples and suspected cases., Supplies to ensure safe burials are also needed immediately.
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[quote][b]Immense social and economic impact[/b]

Many of the patients who have died are between 30 and 45 years old. There are villages in Kailahun in Sierra Leone, for example, which have lost the majority of the adult members of the community, leaving many orphaned children and elderly people.[b] In some villages there is hardly anybody left to cultivate fields or provide for families.[/b]
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[quote]Liberia

The situation is catastrophic and is deteriorating on daily in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. At one point last week, all five of the main hospitals in the city were closed. Some have since reopened but are barely functioning.

There has been no improvement in the overall coordination of the response to the epidemic. Hospitals and almost all health centers in the city of close to one million inhabitants remain closed. [b]The number of dead is outstripping the capacity for health officials to manage safe burials, and more and more health workers have been infected with Ebola over recent weeks. There is a dire need for the WHO, countries, and other international organizations to mobilize to support the Liberian Ministry of Health.[/b]

“[b]The scale of this outbreak is getting bigger every day[/b],” said Lindis Hurum, MSF emergency coordinator in Liberia. “The Liberian health system just cannot cope with the scale of the epidemic. The outbreak has affected every facet of the Liberian society. This disease is very democratic in that sense.”
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[quote]“[b]We have exhausted our available pool of experienced medical staff and cannot scale up our response any further,” said Hurum. “We desperately need the WHO, countries, and other aid agencies to deploy staff to the field. We are Doctors Without Borders, but not without limits.”[/b]
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