CDC, E.ERVINThousands of new Ebola cases in Liberia are expected in the next three weeks, an exponential increase that suggests conventional interventions for stopping the virus’s spread there are insufficient. In a statement issued this week (September 8), World Health Organizations (WHO) officials said that “the demands of the Ebola outbreak have completely outstripped the government’s and partners’ capacity to respond.”
The assessment was the result of a weeks-long investigation by WHO emergency experts, local health officials, and the Liberian government. The country has been one of the hardest-hit by the ongoing epidemic: Liberia has the highest total number of Ebola cases and fatalities, with nearly 2,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths through September 8. Fourteen of 15 counties in the country have reported infections.
More than 150 infections have occurred in healthcare workers, 79 of whom have died. “When the outbreak began, Liberia had only 1 doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people in a total population of 4.4 million people,” the investigators reported. “Every infection or death of a doctor or nurse depletes response capacity significantly.”
Focusing on Montserrado County, home to the country’s ...
