By Anne Look & Christin Roby,
DAKAR/MONROVIA – The World Health Organization said Ebola treatment centres in and around Monrovia, the Liberian capital, need to triple their capacity to 1,000 beds, because as more people become ill and they seek treatment, clinics are having to turn some patients away.
Ebola treatment units in Monrovia are filled to overflowing. Each is only able to take in a trickle of new patients as beds become free.
The ELWA-3 clinic is no exception.
A VOA reporter outside the clinic saw a woman vomiting in the back of a taxi Tuesday morning as her sister, wearing gloves, held her. The taxi driver had run away, abandoning the vehicle.
Three other cars parked nearby each had a sick person sprawled in the back seat.
Resident Jerry Dope said he had been driving since sunrise, trying to find health care for his nephew, who was ill. The ELWA-3 clinic is the third care centre they had visited.
“I brought my nephew. He has been sick. His skin is hot with fever. We brought him here this morning, but we are told there is no space in there, so we are confused,” said Dope. “We don’t know where to go. We don’t know where to head right now.”
Not enough hospital beds
A guard at the clinic said it has been like this for the past three weeks.
“We see sometimes three, four cars coming in front of the gate and then sometimes only one will be [attended] to, and the rest remain there until they are dead,” the guard said.
The ELWA-3 clinic, run by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders [MSF], is the largest in Monrovia. They are in the process of expanding from 120 beds to 400 beds.
Crews are working around the clock to get a new government-run treatment unit, with 100 beds, open later this week in Monrovia.
But the World Health Organization said that is not enough. The caseload is exploding in Montserrado County, which contains the capital.
The WHO said 1,000 beds are needed and that hundreds of health workers must also be trained to staff the new treatment units.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasaveric said, “All these [sick] people who are outside may potentially infect other people, so this is why we are saying it is really urgent to step up the response.”
Public health experts said survival chances are better for those patients who get supportive medical care soon after symptoms start.
Liberia crisis
Liberia’s defence minister told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday the Ebola virus has become a health emergency surpassing his government’s capacity to respond.
Liberia is the hardest hit of the West African countries affected by the ongoing outbreak of the disease. Nine of the country’s 15 counties are currently affected and the Ministry of Health has put the number of reported cases above 2,000 with over 1,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the West African Ebola outbreak has climbed to 2,296 – an increase of 200 in just four days.
The World Health Organization’s latest update on the crisis, released Tuesday, says a total of nearly 4,300 cases of Ebola have been reported across five West African countries.
Just under half of all reported cases and deaths come from Liberia. A WHO report on Liberia, released Monday, warned the number of new cases there is “increasing exponentially” and said thousands of new patients can be expected over the next three weeks.
The WHO says “intense transmission” of the disease also continues in Guinea and Sierra Leone
Liberia’s Defence Minister Brownie Samukai told the Security Council that Ebola is affecting every sector of society.
“We are meeting at a time when Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence. The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our state,” said Samukai. He said the government has taken emergency steps to limit the spread of the disease including declaring a 90-day state of emergency, putting non-essential government employees on leave, quarantining severely affected communities and imposing a nationwide curfew. “In spite of all these measures, continued denial, traditional practices, religious rituals, fear and community resistance still constitute obstacles to progress,” said Samukai. Minister Samukai said the country lacks the infrastructure, logistical capacity, professional expertise and financial resources to effectively combat Ebola and he welcomed U.N. and international assistance.