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| Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Border closures, flight bans and mass quarantines are creating a sense of siege in the West African countries affected by Ebola, officials at an emergency African Union meeting said Monday, as Senegal agreed to allow humanitarian aid pass through its closed borders. |
MONROVIA, Liberia
(AP) -- The United States and Britain will send medical equipment
and military personnel to help contain West Africa's Ebola outbreak, as
the World Health Organization warned Monday that many thousands of new
infections are expected in Liberia in the coming weeks.
The
current Ebola outbreak is the largest on record. It has spread from
Guinea to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal and killed more
than 2,000 people. An "exponential increase" in new cases is expected in
the hardest-hit countries in coming weeks, the U.N. health agency
warned.
"As soon as a new Ebola treatment
facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients,
pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload," WHO said in a
statement about the situation in Liberia. "Many thousands of new cases
are expected in Liberia over the coming three weeks."
So
far, more than 3,500 people have been infected, nearly half of them in
Liberia. The outbreak has taken a particularly heavy toll on health
workers. The World Health Organization announced Monday that one of its
doctors working in Sierra Leone has been infected with Ebola.
In
response to the spiraling disaster, U.S. President Barack Obama said
Sunday that the military would help to set up isolation units and
provide security for public health workers responding to the outbreak.
Military
personnel will set up a 25-bed field hospital in the Liberian capital,
Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday. The clinic will
be used to treat health care workers, a high number of whom have become
infected in this outbreak.
Once set up, the
center will be turned over to the Liberian government. There is no plan
to staff it with U.S. military personnel, Warren said.
Liberia welcomed the news.
"This
is not Liberia's particular fight; it is a fight that the international
community must engage very, very seriously and bring all possible
resources to bear," said Information Minister Lewis Brown.
In
addition, Britain will open a 62-bed treatment center in Sierra Leone
in the coming weeks. It will be operated by military engineers and
medical staff with help from the charity Save the Children, Britain's
Department for International Development said Monday.
The
clinic will also include a special section for treating health care
workers, offering them high-quality, specialist care, the statement
said.
Currently, there are about 570 beds in
Ebola treatment centers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the
hardest-hit countries, and the World Health Organization says nearly
1,000 more are needed, the vast majority of those in Liberia.
Doctors
Without Borders welcomed both the American and British announcements,
but warned even the latest surge in efforts may not be enough, saying
the disease was moving "catastrophically through the
population much
faster than new facilities are being created."
And
experts say it's not just beds, but that more international and local
health workers that are needed.
Doctors Without Borders also urged
Washington to not simply set up clinics but also to staff them.
Many
health workers, however, have been reluctant to respond to the crisis
out of concern that there isn't enough protective equipment to keep them
safe.
A fourth American who contracted Ebola
in West Africa was expected to arrive in the U.S. for care Tuesday,
Emory University Hospital - where two other aid workers successfully
recovered from the disease - said Monday in a news release.
Ebola
is spread through the bodily fluids of people who show symptoms, and
doctors and nurses are at high risk of infection because they work
closely with the sick. The WHO doctor whose infection was announced
Monday is the second health care worker with the agency to catch Ebola.
The doctor is in stable condition and will shortly be evacuated, the
agency said.
In Liberia alone, 152 health care
workers have been infected with Ebola and 79 have died, WHO said,
noting that country had too few doctors and nurses even before the
crisis.
"Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly," it said.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called several world leaders over the
weekend, including the British prime minister and French president, to
urge them to send more medical teams and money to fight the
outbreak.
Officials
have said flight bans and border closures - meant to stop the disease's
spread - are slowing the flow of aid and protective gear for doctors
and nurses to the region.
At an emergency
African Union meeting Monday, members agreed to open borders that have
been closed and lift bans on flights to and from affected countries,
according to Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chair of the AU's Commission. But
it was unclear how quickly those promises would be kept.
Earlier,
Senegal, which has shut its borders and blocked flights, said it was
planning to open a "humanitarian corridor" to the affected countries.
