UN Ebola chief says more resources needed in West Africa

The West African nations hardest hit by Ebola remain in crisis as efforts to contain the disease are hampered by a lack of supplies and experts, the United Nations has said.

While reporting of new cases has slowed in the areas that were hardest hit during the first months of the outbreak, there’s a steep rise in cases in regions that weren’t a problem before.

"Ebola is a real crisis still," said Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN Ebola mission.

“We need to accelerate the response, and we need to cover a broad geographic area.”

More than 5,000 people have died in West Africa since December, curbing economic growth in one of the poorest regions in the world.

Mobilizing resources for the effort has been slow depite the fact that the US, UK and UN have pledged more than $2 billion to fight the disease.

There seems to be a decline in the number of new Ebola patients in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, the Gueckedou region in Guinea and the Kenema region in Sierra Leone, Mr Banbury said.

“Those areas receive the most attention and resources from the responders, so we have more capability in place”, he said.

New cases

There are still new cases being reported daily in regions where Ebola recently took hold.

Mr Banbury said he visited a village in Guinea where people didn’t believe Ebola was real until the virus infected 21 people this month.

“Where there remains this doubt about the reality of Ebola, where it came from, then the communities are at risk.”

Mr Banbury said an acute shortage of experts who have the skills to operate Ebola treatment centers was slowing down the opening of new clinics, even as there’s no immediate lack of supplies at the UN logistics bases in the region.

“That is the most critical gap right now - having very highly skilled experts to run Ebola facilities.”

“We’re not able to open community care centers at the rate we want, and supplies are even starting to pile up in some cases in warehouses.”

African workers

The African Union said today it’s ready to deploy 39 health workers from seven nations, mostly to Guinea.

The UK is building Ebola treatment centers in its former colony Sierra Leone, while the US has deployed military staff to set up centers in Liberia, which was founded by former slaves.

Cuba and China have sent doctors and nurses to Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Regardless of how many experts come to West Africa, the outbreak won’t be contained without the involvement of local communities, Mr Banbury said.

In Guinea, he met a group of traditional healers who have agreed with the government to spread awareness about Ebola after more than 30 healers in the area died.

“The more we see that kind of action by communities, where the trusted voices of the community are talking, we see an improvement,” he said.

“That’s going to be an important part of bringing this crisis to an end.”

Bloomberg