Geneva, August 16 (QNA) – The Ebola epidemic is moving faster than the authorities can handle and could take six months to bring under control, medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said.
The warning came a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the scale of the epidemic had been vastly underestimated and that “extraordinary measures” were needed to contain the killer disease.
New figures released by the UN health agency showed the death toll from the worst outbreak of Ebola in four decades had climbed to 1,145 in the four afflicted West African countries Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
“It is deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to,” Joanne Liu, the chief of MSF, said in Geneva on Friday. She added that it could take six months to get the upper hand.
Liu said that although Guinea was the initial epicenter, the pace there had slowed, and other countries particularly Liberia were now the focus.
Liu also called for more action from the international community and stronger leadership from WHO – the UN’s health agency.
WHO declared a global health emergency last week – recently said the risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel remained low, as the disease is not airborne.
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