As the World Health Organization declares the Ebola outbreak in areas of West Africa a ” humanitarian organizations and medical doctors are urging aggressive action, ‘not just words,’ to help all people threatened by the disease.
The W.H.O. announced Friday that its general ban on international travel or trade,” it urged heads of state in affected countries to declare “national emergencies,” screen people crossing borders by land, air, or sea, and prevent people suspected of infection from traveling.
Dr. Bart Janssens, director of operations for humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders, said in a press statement released Friday, “Declaring Ebola an international public health emergency shows how seriously the World Health Organization (WHO) is taking the current outbreak; but statements won’t save lives. Now we need this statement to translate into immediate action on the ground.”
“The Ebola virus is a very virulent and deadly disease and spreads very quickly,” Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, medical doctor and biomedical researcher for the Food and Drug Administration, told Common Dreams. “Necessary health care measures have to be put in place to contain it.”
The W.H.O. reports that, since this latest outbreak began in March, Ebola has killed at least 932 people, making it the worst outbreak ever recorded. Meanwhile, the total number of suspected and confirmed cases has reached 1,779, with infections and deaths reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. Doctors Without Borders reports that teams on the ground have seen a “worrying surge” in the disease in recent weeks, with drastic increases of infections in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Meanwhile, scientists warn that global climate change may have played a role in fueling this latest outbreak.
The disease, which is transmitted through contact with organs and bodily fluids, has a fatality rate of 50 to 90 percent with no known cure.
