SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
West Africa Ebola Epidemic "Out of Control"
Deadly virus outbreak is worst on record, say health experts.
Jun 27, 2014
Immediate action is needed to contain the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned Wednesday. At least 600 cases and 390 deaths in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea have been reported since the epidemic began in March.
"There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts," Dr. Luis Sambo, WHO regional director for Africa, said this week. WHO and Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have sent teams of relief workers to affected countries.
But large numbers of new cases are straining emergency services on the ground.
"We have reached our limits," said Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. "Despite the human resources equipment deployed... we are no longer able to send teams to the new outbreak sites."
This is the first time Ebola has broken out in the region. Fear and misunderstanding of the disease in local communities have contributed to the speed and scale with which it has spread, while political and religious authorities are failing to promote vital information to fight it, MSF stated. Funerals without safety measures have been a large contributing factor.
Additional support is essential to contain the outbreak, Janssens said.
"The WHO, the affected countries, and neighboring countries must deploy the resources necessary for an epidemic of this scale.... Ebola is no longer a public health issue limited to Guinea. It is affecting the whole of West Africa."
Ebola causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea and can lead to organ failure and internal and external bleeding. It can kill up to 90 percent of those affected. While there is no cure or vaccine for the disease, it can be maintained if it is treated early.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Immediate action is needed to contain the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned Wednesday. At least 600 cases and 390 deaths in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea have been reported since the epidemic began in March.
"There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts," Dr. Luis Sambo, WHO regional director for Africa, said this week. WHO and Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have sent teams of relief workers to affected countries.
But large numbers of new cases are straining emergency services on the ground.
"We have reached our limits," said Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. "Despite the human resources equipment deployed... we are no longer able to send teams to the new outbreak sites."
This is the first time Ebola has broken out in the region. Fear and misunderstanding of the disease in local communities have contributed to the speed and scale with which it has spread, while political and religious authorities are failing to promote vital information to fight it, MSF stated. Funerals without safety measures have been a large contributing factor.
Additional support is essential to contain the outbreak, Janssens said.
"The WHO, the affected countries, and neighboring countries must deploy the resources necessary for an epidemic of this scale.... Ebola is no longer a public health issue limited to Guinea. It is affecting the whole of West Africa."
Ebola causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea and can lead to organ failure and internal and external bleeding. It can kill up to 90 percent of those affected. While there is no cure or vaccine for the disease, it can be maintained if it is treated early.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Immediate action is needed to contain the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned Wednesday. At least 600 cases and 390 deaths in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea have been reported since the epidemic began in March.
"There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts," Dr. Luis Sambo, WHO regional director for Africa, said this week. WHO and Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have sent teams of relief workers to affected countries.
But large numbers of new cases are straining emergency services on the ground.
"We have reached our limits," said Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. "Despite the human resources equipment deployed... we are no longer able to send teams to the new outbreak sites."
This is the first time Ebola has broken out in the region. Fear and misunderstanding of the disease in local communities have contributed to the speed and scale with which it has spread, while political and religious authorities are failing to promote vital information to fight it, MSF stated. Funerals without safety measures have been a large contributing factor.
Additional support is essential to contain the outbreak, Janssens said.
"The WHO, the affected countries, and neighboring countries must deploy the resources necessary for an epidemic of this scale.... Ebola is no longer a public health issue limited to Guinea. It is affecting the whole of West Africa."
Ebola causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea and can lead to organ failure and internal and external bleeding. It can kill up to 90 percent of those affected. While there is no cure or vaccine for the disease, it can be maintained if it is treated early.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.