The Ebola outbreak in
West Africa has accelerated quickly with almost 1,000 deaths in the last month
alone, according to the latest World Health Organisation figures.
The United Nations is
establishing an Ebola Crisis Centre with the goal of stopping transmission in
affected countries within six to nine months, the UN chief said, as the death
toll from the outbreak surpassed 2,000 for the first time.
WHO said the number
of people who have died in the outbreak has reached 2,097 across five West
Africa countries, with about half the deaths in Liberia.
A man believed to be contaminated with the Ebola virus
walks past a worker wearing a Personal Protection Equipment suit (PPE) today
inside the high-risk quarantined zone of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy hospital in
the Liberian capital Monrovia
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has accelerated quickly
with almost 1,000 deaths in the last month alone, according to the latest WHO
figures. Above, women believed to be contaminated with Ebola look on as a worker
carries spray in Monrovia
The United Nations is establishing an Ebola Crisis Centre
with a goal of stopping transmission in affected countries within six to nine
months, the UN chief said, as the death toll from the outbreak surpassed 2,000
for the first time. Above, contaminated women with the Ebola virus in
Monrovia
Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon told reporters after a meeting with senior UN leaders that $600million
(£368m) is urgently needed for supplies to combat Ebola in West
Africa.
He again urged
airlines and shipping countries to lift their bans on flights and port visits so
doctors, nurses, beds, medical equipment and supplies can reach those in
need.
'This is a huge
serious challenge,' he said. 'We are organising to meet it and I am convinced we
can succeed.'
The New York-based
Ebola Crisis Centre will coordinate efforts of the UN, aid organisations,
governments, the private sector, financial institutions and other grass-roots
groups to bring 'synergy and efficiency' to the effort to end the outbreak, he
said.
Total number of probable, confirmed, and suspected cases
in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as at today (source: WHO)
A man sits in front of a preventive poster for the Ebola
virus today at the entrance of a shop in Dialadian, Senegal
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters after a
meeting with senior UN leaders that $600m (£368m) is urgently needed for
supplies to combat Ebola in West Africa
'The number of cases
is rising exponentially,' Mr Ban said. 'The disease is spreading far faster than
the response. People are increasingly frustrated that it is not being
controlled.'
Healthcare in Sierra
Leone's capital city has 'crumbled' because the deadly Ebola outbreak has made
people too terrified to go to hospitals, while some doctors are wary of treating
those who do show up, a physician said.
Speaking at the
launch of a public education programme in Freetown, Kwame O'Neil said patients
suffering from all kinds of ailments are dying due to lack of treatment because
of the outbreak fears.
WHO said the number of people who have died in the
outbreak has reached 2,097 across five West Africa countries, with about half
the deaths in Liberia. Above, a man contaminated with Ebola rests in a Monrovian
hospital
A worker in a PPE suit uses a stick to move rubbish inside
the high-risk quarantined zone of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy hospital in
Liberia. Liberian officials today confirmed that a police barracks in central
Monrovia was shut down after the wife of one of the officers died of
Ebola
Ebola is a deadly
disease for which there is no known cure and which is spread through contact
with bodily fluids.
One young girl died
of appendicitis when, after showing up at a hospital, a doctor there denied he
was a doctor and refused to treat her, Dr O'Neil said.
Dr O'Neil also said
his own aunt died after suffering a stroke and being left untreated at a
hospital for two days.
Sierra Leone has
recorded 1,107 confirmed cases and 430 confirmed deaths from Ebola, according to
the World Health Organisation.
But the country's
health ministry says most are outside the capital. The outbreak has killed about
1,900 people across five countries, according to WHO.
By contrast, the
capital of neighbouring Liberia has been the focal point of the outbreak
there.
Liberian officials
today confirmed that a police barracks in central Monrovia was shut down after
the wife of one of the officers died of Ebola.
Information Minister
Lewis Brown said the officers decided to 'self-quarantine'. About 35 officers
live in the barracks with their families, said Abraham Kromah, deputy director
of the national police force.
Liberian Christian
leaders planned to convene about 100 'prayer warriors' at a historic church in
the capital to drive out Ebola, said the Rev Kortu Brown, vice president of the
Liberian Council of Churches.
The event was being
held at the Providence Baptist Church, where Liberia's declaration of
independence was signed in 1847.
'It is where Liberia
has always prayed in the past when it was confronted,' Mr Brown said.
A state of emergency
in Liberia restricts public gatherings, though church services have largely
continued unimpeded.
In an article
published in Time magazine, Dr Kent Brantly, an American who contracted Ebola in
Liberia and who survived after receiving an experimental treatment in the US,
said the world needs to act.
'Ebola has changed
everything in West Africa,' Dr Brantly wrote. 'We cannot sit back and say, "Oh,
those poor people." We must think outside the box and find ways to
help.'
Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General for
Health Systems and Innovation and Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, Deputy Director General of
WHO, during a conference with international experts on experimental therapies
and vaccines with potential to treat or prevent Ebola virus disease, in Geneva,
Switzerland yesterday
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